A/N: And finally Rendezvous with the Dragon is here! Thanks to everybody who reviewed the last chapter. I hope this chapter and Draco (whom we're finally meeting) live up to your expectations (Actually in Draco's case, I hope I manage to throw you a few unexpected curves grins cheekily). That's all for now, as always REVIEW! Bona Appetite!
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Draco Malfoy, a.ka the Dragon, Captain of Slytherin's Quidditch team, Head Boy (nobody, including the Dragon himself, was still sure how that happened) and number one on Hogwart's Most Beautiful People list for the past two years, was bored.
Senseless.
Mind you this wasn't an ordinary 'I've been playing chess for three hours straight, now what?' bored (he liked chess). No, it was more of a 'I can't believe that I have to sit here and listen to Granger prattle about the rights of house elves and remodeling the sewer system so it doesn't empty into the Great Lake' bored. Since she was Head Girl, this occurred a couple of times every month. And it was a couple of times too many. Honestly, it was almost enough to bring a grown dragon to tears. But at the moment he wasn't sitting in a meeting in the Head Tower with Granger. Far from it. He was in the Room of Requirement, which had been tastefully decorated to resemble the latest London club scene complete with the smoke screen, bubbles and DJ stand, attending a party that had already been dubbed the party of the year and was bound to go down in Hogwart's history. The room was chock full of people, some of which he'd never met in life, most of which he'd met but didn't see a point in remembering and a few that he could call acquaintances. From the looks of things, everybody seemed to be having the time of their life. Except for him, Draco thought moodily. And Nott, he added as an afterthought. He'd long given up on trying to figure out why Nott was following him around purposelessly instead of mingling with the other party-goers.
Draco turned to Nott who sitting next to him on the plushy lounge sofa. "Remind me again what I'm doing here."
Nott merely raised an eyebrow, a technique Draco was sure he practiced every day in front of the mirror. He could picture it perfectly. Raise right eyebrow ten times. A one and a two and a three-. Just then, a girl appeared out of nowhere and hurled herself into his lap effectively ending his mental image of Nott's eyebrow exercises. She was also effectively ending his breathing and crushing his windpipe since she had her arms wrapped around his neck tight.
"DRACO! DRAGON! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" she shouted though there really was no need seeing as how her mouth was right next to his ear. Draco winced as he added his hearing to the growing list of things this bint had destroyed. If he wasn't careful, she'd be the death of him.
Before he could do anything, Nott was pulling the girl off him and instructing her to leave the present she carried in her hand on the table near the entrance which was close to overflowing. Apparently Nott did have his purposes.
After she had left, Nott sat back down. "Still wondering what you're doing here?" He asked Draco with a ghost of a smirk.
"Not anymore," Draco said rubbing his aching neck. "Do I know her?"
Nott shook his head.
"Should I know her?" Draco asked.
Nott thought about it for a second. "Nah, she's nobody important." He decided.
Draco took Nott's word for that. Remembering where his train of thought had been before he'd been so rudely interrupted by the unimportant chit, he asked suddenly, "Do you exercise your eyebrows?"
"Do I what?" Nott said.
"Exercise your eyebrows. Do eyebrow exercises." Draco repeated gesturing to his own. "You know look in the mirror, raise each eyebrow a certain number of times, then wiggle the right one, then wiggle the left one, that kind of thing."
It was moments like these that truly made Nott worry about his fellow Slytherin's mental state of health. He could handle the Dragon's unconventional and ill-timed temper, no matter how bad things got. But eyebrow exercises? The plain randomness of the topic threw Nott for a loop. But Malfoy had been doing that a lot lately ever since his break-up with She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Under usual circumstances, Malfoy was not a random person in the least. And he most certainly would not be spending his time thinking about another guy's eyebrows.
"Man, she messed you up but good," Nott commented, shaking his head in pity for his fellow Slytherin.
Still stuck on the whole eyebrow issue, Draco was not ready for this change in conversation. "Huh?" he said.
"Daisy," That slipped out before Nott could stop it. Immediately he cringed and inwardly slapped himself for saying the She-Devil's name. Out loud. In front of Malfoy. There was an unspoken agreement between the Slytherins that her name should never be spoken since mentioning it was the one of the guaranteed things that would set Malfoy off at any given time. And as Nott had learned in the past, to his abject horror, where the Satan's She-Child was concerned, set off did not always mean send Malfoy into a rage. "Never mind. Forget I said anything."
"No, no why do that?" Draco said in what he thought to be a calm, rational voice. "I can tell this conversation is long overdue."
Oh great, Nott thought helplessly looking for a way out of the situation he'd just gotten himself in. This was not the time or the place for this. "How about we not?"
"You brought it up," Draco said in a not so nice voice. "The least you can do is be a man about it and see the conversation through."
That was hitting below the belt. "Be a man?" Nott laughed disbelievingly. "You're one to talk Malfoy. At least I don't lock myself in the bathroom so I can cry like a little girl."
"I had soap in my eyes!" Draco said defensively.
"Riiiight," Nott said sarcastically. Malfoy had pushed all his buttons, so he kept at it, despite knowing what it would probably lead to. "You want to have this conversation, fine. You want to hear the truth, it's up to you."
"Let's have it then," Draco said stubbornly, leaning back and folding his arms.
"You've changed. And not for the better." Although he was determined to give Malfoy a dose of reality, he had cooled down enough to realize that things would go more smoothly if he was tactful.
Draco waited a beat. "Is that it? That's the truth? That's what you were getting so worked up about?" he asked.
The heck with tact. It was all overrated anyway. "No, the truth is that ever since you broke up with Daisy you've become a totally different person. And I wish I was talking about your newly developed tendency to hex somebody into oblivion just for looking at you funny. Cos if I were then we wouldn't be having this conversation. But no. Somewhere in the past two weeks you made the transition from somebody you don't ever want to cross to somebody that can only be described as pathetic. And as a Slytherin, that is not acceptable."
Draco shrugged. To tell the truth, this conversation was starting to bore him. He'd only goaded Nott into it in the first place because the possibility of getting into a fight don't, with somebody that actually knew how to fight, had been more appealing then sitting around doing nothing. But now that the moment had passed, he just wanted this 'discussion' to be over so he could do something less boring. Like leave. And watch paint dry. Or count the cracks in the ceiling above his bed. Somewhere in the back of his mind he thought, maybe Nott was right, maybe he was becoming pathetic. It was unsettling how that thought didn't bother him so much.
"So?" Draco said, coming out of his musings. "What's that got to do with you?"
"Everything!" Nott replied. "Don't let this get to your head or anything, but you're like the Prince of Slytherins. Anything you do reflects on the rest of us. So when everybody eventually realizes that you've turned into a damn yuppie, we're all going to get the heat for it."
"I have not turned into a yuppie," Draco growled in indignation, for a split second feeling like his old self.
"You haven't?" Nott taunted. "Take a look at yourself. When's the last time you actually partied? Went out with the guys? All you do is lock yourself in your room, except for classes, mealtimes and Quidditch practice. Then you use that time to take out your anger on the rest of the world. And if having a hair-trigger temper wasn't enough," Nott continued ignoring Malfoy's token protests. "You've developed the attention span of niffler. And to top things off, your mood swings have been all over the friggin' place. All of the sudden, you're like Parkinson on permanent PMS."
"Alliteration," Draco said approvingly. At Nott's blank look, he added, "Sorry, I've been reading a lot of poetry lately."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Nott said when he'd finally recovered his ability to speak. "Since when do you read poetry? No, no, wait let me guess, it's one of the habits you picked up in hopes that Daisy will take you back."
Draco glared at him, daring him to say something. Anybody else would've gotten the hint but apparently Nott had a suicide wish. Or maybe he was just dumb.
"That's the stupidest thing I've heard in a long time, mate. The Sorting Hat put you in Slytherin for a reason, Malfoy. Where's your damn pride? So she dumped you. Get over it. Everybody gets dumped."
"I don't," Draco said sulkily.
"Well there's a first time for everything," Nott retorted. "So stop acting like a bloody Hufflepuff and get over it and get over her."
"I am over it!"
"Don't even try to lie to me, Malfoy," Nott scorned. "Slytherin, remember? I'll see right through it."
"I Am Over It," Draco repeated through clenched teeth. It was one thing for Nott to deem him too pathetic to be a Slytherin but to even suggest that he was still hung up on Her, that was too much. He was not under any circumstances still hung up on What's-her-face. See? He didn't even remember her name! He could not, would not still have feelings for somebody who had humiliated him and made a laughing stock out of him.
"Oh yeah?" Nott challenged. "Why haven't you gone out with anybody after her?"
"Where have you been for the past couple weeks? I have too gone out with somebody after Daisy-dammit!" Well, there went his whole I don't even remember her name rant. And just when he almost had himself convinced.
"Get real man. We're not talking about those girls you'd bring along with you whenever we forced you to get your head out of your arse and go for a drink. Everybody knows they were only for show. Even the chicks themselves. It's not like you're boinking them."
Draco was busy putting his brain into overdrive to think of a way to fend off this new line of attack when something Nott said got through to him. "Wait- what do you mean that everybody knows they were only for show?" he asked suspiciously.
And it was then Nott knew that he had him. "What?" he bluffed. "You really thought people we're buying it? The whole I'm the big bad snake and nothing will ever bring me down? See me shove my tongue down this girl's throat, doesn't that prove that I'm over being dumped?"
"You're saying it didn't work?" Draco asked anxiously. It was one thing from him to wallow in self-pity and a pile of Honeydukes best chocolate but it was another thing for the whole school to know and have his reputation as the 'Big Bad Snake" smeared. Draco shuddered at that horrid thought.
"You're saying that you actually thought it did?" Nott shot back.
"Yeah." Draco admitted. He was lucky that he was talking to Nott and nobody else. He had enough crapola on him so he didn't have to watch what he was saying.
"News flash, Malfoy. It didn't. And the result it, you are quickly losing favor with the ladies." That was a blatant lie. Malfoy could be declared a certified nutcase and he still wouldn't lose favor with the ladies. But since Nott was positive that Malfoy hadn't been keeping up with the school gossip, he wouldn't know that.
"I am not!" Draco gasped.
"Yes you are. When's the last time a girl threw herself at you?" Nott said counting on the fact that Malfoy never paid attention to these sort of things.
"Just five minutes ago!" Draco said triumphantly, brightening considerably. For a second he'd been worried that what Nott was saying was true. What pure hippogryff dung.
"Malfoy, she was drunk," Nott stated. "I'm surprised that you couldn't smell it on her breath since she was practically attached to your face."
She had smelled funny, Draco remembered with grimace. His newfound happiness deflated slowly as he started to entertain the thought that maybe Nott was right. Dangerous thoughts, he warned himself almost immediately after that. There's no way Nott was right. Nott was never right. He was Nott, for Salazar's sake!
"My touch is still gold," Draco persisted.
Nott leaned back and did the eyebrow thing. It was starting to get on Draco's nerves. "Prove it," Nott said simply.
"Fine," Draco said bristling. He stood up to survey the crowd in front of him. Almost everybody was on the dance floor, dancing, more like grinding to a slow song. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted two girls standing next to the refreshments, eating. They weren't gorgeous, he mused, but they weren't ugly either. Just sort of normal looking. Pretty enough faces he supposed, but the one on the right had absolutely no bust to speak off and the one on the left was a little on the pudgy side. She would've been considered attractive if only she would lose some weight. What the hell, he thought with a long suffering sigh. It wasn't like he was going to sleep with them or anything. He was just merely proving a point to Nott. Then they could go about their merry little business and he could go about his.
"Oi! You two!" he shouted over the music.
Slowly they turned towards him and gave him a who me? look.
"Yes you," he said annoyed. "One of you. Or both of you. Doesn't really matter. Come over here."
It was apparent that they heard him but they made no move, didn't even take a single step.
"Today would be nice," Draco said sarcastically. "Don't worry the food's not going anywhere."
They gave him a disbelieving look. The pudgy one (he decided that for her own good and for the good of the male population of Hogwarts, he'd tell her about her little weight issue. Even offer to let her use his own personal gym. Which was a bit too generous for a Slytherin but he was grandly willing to overlook that) mouthed something that looked like 'fuck off' but it couldn't be. Not when he was planning to do her such a big favor. Then as if to say 'you better believe it buddy', the flat-chested one flipped him the bird. And with that they both walked away. It was Draco's turn to be dumbstruck.
"Well, sod it all to hell." He muttered, still not quite believing he'd been shot down. And by two ugly chicks (he'd changed he's mind about the normal looking) at that. Fuming, he sat back down. The reality of what had just happened was reinforced by Nott's roars of laughter.
"Touch is still gold, eh Malfoy?" he said before erupting into gales of laughter.
"Fuck off, you bloody wanker," Draco growled sinking into his seat. "There's obviously something wrong with those two. They're like defective or something."
"Defective or something? That's the best you can come up with?" Nott snorted. "Try the fact that you acted like a complete egotistical prig. Which you are but you don't need to let them know that. Remember, the Golden Rules? You acted like you were calling a damn dog instead of hitting on a girl. Where's the charm you're so famous for? And the fact that I have to tell you this is a testament in itself to how low you've sunk. I mean, you invented those guidelines and now you can't even follow them?"
"I can too." Draco said petulantly. "I just didn't feel like they were worth it."
"Another Golden Rule. Doesn't matter if the girl isn't worth it, you want to get her, you treat her like she's the Queen of the Universe. Simple enough?" Nott said.
"Course it is. I invented the Golden Rules, didn't I?" Draco scowled. But the truth of the matter was it'd been so long since he'd even bothered to use them, he wasn't entirely sure how to go about them. Not that he'd ever admit that to Nott.
At that moment a hush fell over the room and all eyes riveted to the entrance of the Room of Requirement. Having a hunch what they were looking at, Nott also turned to the doorway. Standing in the door, looking so gorgeous that all of the girls in the room immediately felt inferior, were Blaise Zabini and Virginia Weasely. The only reason Nott knew that the stunning redhead next to Blaise was Virginia was because he knew that Blaise had been bringing her. However, the rest of the people didn't have the luxury of that little tidbit of knowledge and the room quickly started buzzing with speculations on who the mysterious beauty might be.
"What's going on?" Draco asked having caught the air of excitement in the room.
"Look towards the entrance." Nott said.
Draco curiously followed his gaze. His eyes landed on Blaise. She looked sexy as hell but then Blaise always looked like that so he didn't see a reason for everybody to go crazy over her. "Yeah so?"
That response troubled Nott but he put his plan into action anyway. "Well she's obviously going to be the star of the party and since you're so worried about your reputation with the ladies, why don't you try and snag her?"
Draco mulled over that. "I got to admit I see your point, Nott. But you're forgetting that Blaise and I have already gone down that route before back in our 4th year. And the memory of the whole awkward, first time, virgin thing is still fresh enough in both our minds to insure that there will be no more repeat performances. Ever."
What the -? Blaise, who said anything about Blaise? Nott looked from the girl in question then back to Malfoy then back to the doorway again. It was then that he noticed that from Malfoy's point of view Virginia was sort of hidden behind Blaise. He jerked Malfoy to where he was standing. "Not Blaise, you dolt. The chit that's standing next to her."
Draco turned from Blaise to the girl next to her and let out a low whistle.
"That good?" Nott asked, trying to keep a gleeful smile off his face.
"You have to ask?" Draco returned not taking his eye off the girl. Now he could understand the rush that had gone through the crowd. It wasn't her looks exactly, though she certainly was pretty enough. It could be the amount of skin she was flashing or those long sinful legs that were probably at the moment starring in a handful of teenage boys' fantasies but Draco wouldn't bet on it. Or it could've been the whole 'don't even try to touch me' air she had but Draco decided that it was probably a combination of all of the above. There was also the fact that nobody seemed to know who she was. Draco wracked his brain trying to figure out if he'd seen her before. Although he hardly ever bothered to remember most of the people he'd met he was sure he would've remembered her. Something about her told him that she was of the unforgettable sort.
Seeing the open interest on Draco's face- a look he had not seen for quite a while-, Nott resolved there and then that no matter what it took, Malfoy would have the girl before the night was over. If Blaise came through then he wouldn't have to worry about that but if she didn't- well, the possibility of spending the rest of the year and Quidditch Season with post-Daisy Malfoy insured the fact that he would do just about anything to get the old Malfoy back. "So she's shaggable?"
"Definitely shaggable." Draco responded without thinking. "C'mon, let's go say hi to Blaise."
"Say hi to Blaise?" Nott said wryly. "Is that all you want to do?"
Draco gave a roguish grin, momentarily surprised how automatically the action had come to him.
Nott grinned. "Ladies, I do believe that the Dragon is back in business."
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I'm going to kill Blaise, Ginny thought. I'm going to kill her but first I'm going to torture her. Slowly. Painfully. The thought gave her some reprieve from the snitches flying around in her stomach and the urge to throw up. With everybody in the room's eyes on her she wanted nothing more then to put on Harry's invisibility cloak and disappear. But Blaise, anticipating that reaction, had confiscated the cloak when they arrived in front of the Room of Requirement.
"Why the hell are they all staring at us- particularly me?" Ginny asked under her breath. At the same time, she tilted her head defiantly towards the crowd. She would not let this room full of Slytherins and God knows what else intimidate her. Of course if she had her wand and was a bit more covered then there would've been no need to talk herself into not being intimidating. If she had her wand then she might've been able to do something about the covering issue but courtesy of one Blaise Zabini, her wand was nowhere to be found. So unless she draped a tablecloth over herself, there was no way of covering all the excess skin. Ginny added that to her mental list of reasons of why she was justified in killing Blaise Zabini. Surely no jury would find her guilty when they heard of the horrific things Blaise had done to her. In fact, they'd probably give her some sort of reward money in compensation of suffering so great an injury. And then she'd give some of the money away to charity, because she's a good, kind-hearted person completely unlike the late Ms. Zabini who was an evil, evil, girl. Then some news network will come across the fact that some young, beautiful British girl had just given away gobs of money and do an interview on her (The public is very fond of young, beautiful people who give away money you know). Soon all of the witchly magazines and talk shows will be warring to do an exclusive on her. Which she will generously grant, because although she has become rich and famous, she remembers what it feels like to be one of the little people. Naturally, the next step would be writing her own autobiography talking about the horrors of dealing with Slytherins like Blaise Zabini and how she survived. Of course it will be a smash hit the minute it gets published simply because it was written by her and she is the all the rave. Ginny grinned at the thought of how much good could come from killing Blaise Zabini. She made a note to do it as soon as possible.
"It comes with being the 'it' girl. Deal with it." Blaise said answering the question Ginny had asked eons ago. "And stop thinking about murdering me."
"I'm not thinking about murdering you." Ginny lied, startled out of her reverie. How in the world had Blaise known what she was thinking? Had she somehow acquired the eye in the past two minutes? Ginny studied Blaise keenly, seeing if she looked any different now that she had the eye. Nope. Still the same. Maybe she didn't have the eye. Fate would never be so cruel as to bestow a gift on one so undeserving. Just to be sure, she asked. "What makes you think that?"
"Lucky guess," Blaise answered. "Or it could be the crazy, homicidal look on your face and the fact you keep whispering 'kill Zabini' and then grinning."
"Well do you blame me?" Ginny retorted crossing her arms which did interesting things for her breasts she realized. She noticed some Slytherin fifth year blatantly staring at said breasts and immediately dropped her arms. "Besides it's the only thing keeping me from running out of this room screaming."
"Maybe, but everyone in this room is going to start thinking you're nuts, which you are but let's try to keep it a secret, shall we?"
"I'm not nuts," Ginny said vehemently. "You are nuts for getting me involved in your shenanigans in the first place. Everybody in this room is nuts for voluntarily being here. And I am the only unnutty person."
"Shhh," Blaise hissed spotting Nott and Dragon heading there way. "Not so loud, Draco's coming."
"And why should I care?" She was too caught up in the heat of the moment to realize the true weight of this statement.
"Because you're the only reason he's headed this way." Blaise replied.
"No, it's not." Ginny said but her stomach took a plunge as she too spotted the boys. "He's probably just leaving and we're in his way. Or he's coming to say hi to you. Either way I have nothing to do with it."
"You tell yourself that," Blaise smirked.
"Ugh," Ginny said, tearing her gaze from her impending doom (otherwise known as Draco Malfoy) so she could make a disgusted face at Blaise. "I could practically hear that smirk. What is it with you Slytherins and smirking? Besides the alliteration."
"What's that about alliteration?" Came a lazy, amused drawl.
From too many years of being on guard around Malfoy, Ginny instinctively stiffened. Then chiding herself for reacting so stupidly, she forced herself to relax and turn to face him. And quickly realized that was not the most brilliant of moves. He was closer to her then she'd expected him to be. A lot closer. Like crowding her personal space close. Like there was only a hairbreadth of space between them (That was a bit of an exaggeration, but under such circumstances Ginny felt as if she had the right to exaggerate.) Like if she looked up she could probably count his nose hairs close. Not that she wanted to count his nose hairs. Great Merlin, the mere thought was nauseating. In fact the mere phrase "Malfoy's nose hairs" was nauseating and she was going to stop thinking about it immediately. Immediately, she said! But unfortunately the image of Malfoy's nose hairs was imbedded in her brain and it was refusing to budge. She rolled her eyes up as far as they could go, thinking that if she was somehow able to roll them inwards she'd be able to see inside her mind and simply pluck the thought out. After a couple of seconds of trying, Ginny concluded that the only thing that action would get her was a migraine. Oh well. It was just another one for the list of grievances against Blaise.
Speak of the devil; Ginny stumbled as Blaise elbowed her in the side, hard.
Rubbing her side, Ginny glared at Blaise. "And what, pray tell, was that for, Zabini?"
In response, Blaise motioned to Draco who was giving her a strange look. Either that or he was constipated. Dimly she wondered how it was possible that someone with obvious signs of constipation could manage to look so good. Abruptly she realized where her thoughts had been and took a step back in horror. OMG, I did not just go there.
"Go where?" Malfoy's companion spoke up. Ginny recognized him as Nott, a Slytherin seventh year and too late realized that she must have spoken her last thought out loud.
"Um, nowhere?"
She was saved from having to explain further by another elbow jab from Blaise. Ignoring the fact that Blaise had just done her a favor (She'd just about reached her limit of patience where Blaise was concerned), she snarled, "What the fuck is wrong with you, you mentally deranged pathetic excuse for a human being?"
"Funny, I was just going to ask you that question," Blaise shot back. Apparently she'd had it with Ginny too. "And the only mentally deranged person I see in this room is you."
"Then it's about time you got a mirror, don't you think?" Ginny snapped. Mentally she patted herself on the back for coming up with such a good come back.
"Okay, okay. Break it up you two," Nott ordered. "You guys are attracting way too much attention."
"Stay out of it, Nott." Blaise warned, never taking her eyes off Ginny.
"Not on your life, Zabini." Nott said dead serious. "You two fight now, you'll ruin everything. And you'll regret it later." Blaise tore her eyes from Ginny to look at Nott. What was unspoken but clearly heard was I'll make sure of it.
For a long moment Blaise stared at Nott. Then, slowly, she nodded.
"We'll continue this later," she informed Ginny.
"What's wrong with now? You afraid you won't be able to take me?"
"Don't push me," Blaise said. "And don't forget why we're here in the first place."
"Do I look like I'm about to forget anytime soon?" Ginny retorted. But for a moment she had.
Ignoring Ginny's poisonous tone, Blaise smiled and said in a sugar sweet voice (Ginny wasn't sure who's benefit it was for; Draco or the onlookers), "Look, why don't we start over? Dragon, Nott let's pretend you guys just came over."
So that how it was going to be? Well, fine with her. "What a good idea, Blaise." Ginny said, in a just as syrupy voice. "Boys?"
As Blaise had expected, that broke the crowd up. They walked away looking disappointed that they weren't going to witness a fight. Nott looked merely amused while Draco looked as if his constipation was growing worse. Poor thing, Ginny mused sympathetically. Then she remembered that this was Malfoy. He deserved to be constipated! It was like, penance for past sins. And she was sure he had those in spades. Speaking of penance, she banged her palm of her hand against her head for thinking that wayward thought. She considered smacking Blaise, cos once again it was her fault that the thought had even occurred to her but seeing as Blaise had a wand and Ginny didn't, she decided it wouldn't be wise.
"So, I didn't get the chance to say this before but Happy Birthday, Dragon," Blaise said, giving him an obligatory kiss.
Ginny immediately sheltered her innocent eyes from the much exchanging of saliva between the two Slytherins (okay so it didn't exactly happen that way but right of exaggeration, remember?).
"Thanks," Draco said with grin. "Where's my present?"
"It's coming," Blaise said smiling (this time a real smile) back.
Draco frowned. "I'm getting sick of hearing that," he said.
"Meaning?" Blaise asked.
"That's exactly what Crabbe, Goyle, and Nott said," Draco complained. "Hey wait a minute- you guys aren't planning to get me one present from all of you, are you?"
Nott and Blaise exchanged an almost imperceptible look but Draco caught it.
"You are, aren't you?" Draco accused. "Well, it sure as hell better be a good present if all of you are in on it."
"It will be, Malfoy." Nott said mildly.
At that, Ginny pulled Blaise aside. "Excuse us." She told the boys.
"What now, Weasely?"
"He just called him Malfoy!" she hissed.
"Oh for Merlin's-" Blaise exploded. "That is what you pulled me aside to tell me!"
"Uh yeah," Ginny said, not feeling a bit remorseful.
"Well?"
"So, why can't I call Malfoy, Malfoy?" Ginny wanted to know.
"I thought I made it clear enough, Weasel. It's Draco or Dragon. You are not under any circumstances to call him Malfoy." Blaise said.
"But why not?" Ginny persisted. "Nott does."
Blaise rubbed her temples. "Now is not the time to discuss the dos and don'ts of Slytherin conduct." She groaned. "Suffice to say, when Nott or any other male Slytherin calls Draco Malfoy it's a sign of respect to him and his family. When you or any other non-Slytherin except for a few special cases call him Malfoy, it's automatically considered a sign of disregard or worse. And since you have agreed to be nice to him, you will not call him Malfoy. Do I make myself clear?"
"Like mineral water." Ginny replied.
"What was that all about?" Nott asked when the girls had finished their little powwow.
"Nothing," Blaise said breezily. Turning to Ginny, she said, "Didn't you have something you wanted to tell Draco?"
"Did I?" Ginny asked, pretending to have forgotten which she couldn't have because Blaise had drilled it into her brain.
Blaise glared at her.
"Oh right, I did." Ginny said, turning to the person in question. She took a couple of deep breaths to fortify herself and to get herself ready to say it. When a couple of deep breaths didn't do the trick, she took a couple more. Still wasn't working. Noticing the looks she was receiving she held up a finger, "Give me a minute,"
Ginny was sure she heard Blaise growl. It was quite an unnerving sound.
"Okay, I'm ready," Ginny said, smiling falsely hoping against hope that she was truly ready. She opened her mouth and-
Nothing came out.
Determined to see this through no matter how much it killed her, she cleared her throat and tried again. This time she squeaked.
It was Blaise's turn to haul Ginny off.
"What the hell are you playing at, Weasely?" she asked furiously.
"Nothing," Ginny said, for once being honest. "I swear it. It's just that every time I try to say the words, the thought of what I'm actually going to do hits me and the words kind of get stuck in my throat."
"Why me?" Blaise asked rolling her eyes heavenward. "You make it sound like you're going to bloody propose to the boy."
"Eeew," Ginny said wrinkling her nose.
"It's three words, Weasely. I'm sure you can say them without choking."
"Well that's good cos me, I'm not so sure at all." Ginny confessed.
"You give Gryffindors a bad name, you know that?" Blaise said.
"I do not," Ginny disagreed, affronted.
"Then where's all that courage you guys are famed for?"
"Off vacationing in Aruba with my sanity?" Ginny suggested.
"More like mine for getting into this mess in the first place," Blaise muttered. "Just get it over with Weasely. Think about it this way, the sooner you say the words the sooner you're out of here."
Well, when you put it that way- Ginny stalked back to where Nott and Malfoy were waiting with Blaise hot on her heels.
"Sorry, girl talk," Blaise apologized. "Now where were we?"
"I think you were about squeak- sorry, say something?" Nott said smirking at Ginny.
Ginny gave him her most hated look. After Malfoy, Nott was her second least favorite of the Slytherins.
For what she promised herself was the last time, Ginny took a deep breath (she was quickly figuring out that deep breaths were overrated) and turned towards Draco. She could do this, she told herself, she had practiced what? A hundred times? Okay not that much but she'd repeated the words at least ten times. And every time she'd done it perfectly. Well, not perfectly but she'd managed to get the words out without giving herself a hernia which was a miracle in itself.
"Herni-" Ginny winced, that's what she got for thinking about hernias. "I mean, Hap-happy ba-ba I mean bi-birth- birth- birthday," She felt a surge of triumph now that she'd gotten two words out. Only one word, unfortunately that one was the hardest. "Dr-Ma-Dr-Ma." Ginny threw Blaise a helpless look.
"Of all the-" Blaise said, thoroughly put out. "Just give it up. What she's trying to say Dragon is Happy Birthday."
"Yeah, I kind of figured that out," Draco replied. "But who's Dharma?"
"l think that might be you." Nott stage whispered.
Just then the DJ started to play a slow song.
"Ooh, I love this song," Ginny squealed excitedly and was immediately on the receiving end of three short attention span, anyone? looks.
Then Blaise was hit with a moment of inspiration. Catching Nott's eye she mimicked dancing with her hands and pointed to Dragon and Ginny. Being one of the brighter Slytherins though many people tended to overlook that fact, he immediately understood what she wanted.
"Really? what a coincidence, so does Malfoy." Nott said.
"No, I d-Ow!" Draco glared at Nott as he hopped around on one foot, the one Nott hadn't stomped on.
"Now do you remember how much you like this song?" Nott said pleasantly.
"How could I have ever forgotten?" Draco said, through clenched teeth and much hopping.
"Here's a thought," Blaise said, pretending it had just occurred to her. She turned to Ginny "You like this song," then she turned to Draco. "And you like this song. And this song is meant to be danced to. So why don't you two dance to it?"
"With him?" Ginny asked incredulously just as Draco said, in an equally incredulous tone, "With her?"
They both turned to look at each other somewhat surprised.
Both feeling as they needed to clarify, they said in unison. "Together?"
Insert another exchange of looks.
Okay I know why I don't want to dance with him, but what reason could he possibly have for not wanting to dance with me? Is he not the fool who wanted me here in the first place?
Okay I know why I don't want to dance with her, but why the H- E- double broomstick does she not want to dance with me? I'm friggin' Draco Malfoy!
"Together?" Blaise laughed, a strange sounding brittle laugh. "What makes you think that? I meant by yourselves in complete separate corners of the room."
Having spent enough time with Blaise in the past couple of hours to start anticipating her moods, Ginny took a cautious step back. Draco and Nott however were not aware of Blaise's new fragile state of mind so they stayed put, Draco with a relieved look and Nott a confused one.
"OF COURSE I MEANT TOGETHER! WHAT ARE YOU, DAFT?"
Ginny watched amusedly as the two Slytherins jumped practically a foot.
"WELL WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?"
Composed, Blaise was a force to be reckoned with. Uncomposed, her hair starting to come loose, spittle forming at the corners of her mouth, and yelling at the top of her lungs, she was downright terrifying. Draco snapped to attention and hurried to do as she ordered.
Ginny, although mildly concerned about the new low Blaise seemed to have reached, was not so willing.
"Give us a minute," she told the boys. They nodded but stayed rooted to their spots eyeing Blaise warily. Deciding to use Blaise's technique, she said loudly (yelled was more like it) "SHOO!"
She grinned when they immediately started to move. She turned to Blaise who was still breathing heavily.
"Take deep breaths," Ginny said kindly. "There you go, that's the way."
Summoning a bottle of water from the refreshment table, Blaise took a long swallow and pulled herself together.
"Why," She paused for effect. "Are you not dancing with Draco?"
"What, you say jump, I jump? Sorry Zabini, the whole eye bulging banshee, screeching thing might've worked on Malfoy but having done my fair share of eye bulging, banshee screeching it has zero effect on me." Ginny said cheerfully. It was amazing how watching Blaise lose it could make her feel so, so- well, not like losing it.
Blaise barely resisted the urge to go back to her cationic state, barely. It would've made things so much easier. When she killed Weasely she could just plead temporary insanity and with the way she'd just acted, nobody would dare disagree with that.
"Listen to me, Weasely." Blaise began quietly and ominously. "I've got waaaay too much riding on this to let you, of all people, ruin it. Do you have any idea how long it's taken me to work this out so everybody's happy? Do you? DO YOU? Years, Weasel, years. And now the only thing between me and Oliver is you and if you THINK, for a nanosecond, that I'll just sidestep and let you trod all over my carefully laid plans, think again. You do NOT have a say in this. If I say, jump, you WILL jump. And if I say dance with Dragon, you WILL dance with Dragon. There is no other option."
Now a person of average intelligence would've understood from Blaise's creepy undertone, the hushed way she was speaking and the edges of hysteria tingeing her voice that the wise decision would be to just nod and back away slowly, very slowly. In circumstances such as these, one must seriously doubt Ginny Weasely's level of intelligence.
"Yes there is." Ginny fought. "I'm not a house elf, Zabini. I can decide not to dance to your tune and what a cowinky dink? I can decide not to dance with Malfoy. "
Blaise really wanted to have another eye bulging, banshee screeching moment, like an addict wants their next fix. That bad. This is what the current state of her life and absolutely no sleep for the past forty-eight hours did to her. It also helped that with every passing second she could practically feel her chances of getting Oliver to take her back slipping away, since in order for that to happen she'd have to meet up with him and according to his publicist, he was supposed to be leaving for Cambodia anywhere from the next couple of minutes to the next couple of hours. But she would not give up, not now, not when she was so close. Time for her back up card.
"You will dance with Dragon if want me to consider this debt repaid in full,"
"What are you, joking?" Ginny said disbelievingly. "You've seriously overplayed the debt card, Zabini. I've more than repaid it in full."
"I was so hoping you would say that," Blaise said smiling maliciously. "Cos it gives me the chance to use my other card."
Ginny didn't think she liked the sound of that.
"You said something back when we were getting ready for the part that struck me as very interesting." Blaise said slowly, still smiling. "Something about if your mom ever heard of you dressing like this, she'd send you to the nearest convent. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but that leads one to believe that you don't want your mother hearing of you, much less seeing you wearing nothing more than scrap of material and a pair of heels. She might get all sorts of wrong ideas, with the right sort of prompting of course. Imagine her surprise when she receives a letter from a well-wisher about her daughter's latest activities complete with pictures of her only daughter and youngest child, looking like a Knockturn Alley hooker-"
"I do not look like a Knockturn Alley hooker!"
"I'm sure you're mother would disagree." Blaise said evenly.
"You're bluffing," Ginny declared, though she felt queasy at the slight thought of the type and severity of the consequences bound to happen if Blaise ever decided to test her hypothesis. "I bet you don't even have any pictures."
"Do I look like the type of person to make an empty bluff? Especially when I have so much riding on it?" Blaise answered, now eerily calm and reasonable.
No, no she didn't, Ginny was forced to admit. "Where are they then?" She asked despite her inner turmoil.
"They're in the process of being developed." Blaise answered. "I should have them in about an hour or so. Now, you have two choices you can A) leave, go back to your dormitory, patiently wait for the pictures to get to your mom, which thanks to express owl won't take long, and then wait for her to come storming into Hogwarts, because we both know that's what she'd do and immediately no matter what time of night it was. I have no idea what she'll do after that but I'm sure you can come up with some pretty good theories."
That she could and the thought alone was enough to make Ginny feel miserable.
"Or," Blaise continued, seeing she had Ginny's undivided attention. "B) you can dance with Dragon which is not the brain surgery you're making it to be. It'll take a couple of minutes at the most, and despite your professed hate for all things Draco Malfoy, I'm sure you can take a couple of minutes of contact with him. Zone him out, pretend he's somebody else, go to your safe place, I don't care. Just dance with him."
"You don't have any proof that you have the pictures." Ginny argued feebly.
"And you don't have any proof that I don't," Blaise replied. "The real question is are you willing to risk it?"
No she was not, Ginny admitted. Having to choose between dancing with Malfoy or facing her mother's wrath was like being forced to choose between running through the Great Hall naked or watching Dumbledore run through the Great Hall naked. Not that that would ever happen but it was analogous since both thoughts were equally unappealing. But on the greater scale of things i.e. Life, Ginny reasoned that having her mother think that she was some kind of tart for eternity (Molly Weasely was known for having a long memory) was somewhat worse than spending three, four minutes in Malfoy's arms. The reason for this being that she could zone him out like, Blaise had suggested, and later do the whole selective memory thing and forget that it ever happened (this is once she recovers from the state of shock she will surely go into the minute any part of his anatomy touches any part of hers, and she doesn't mean anatomy THAT way so stop thinking those dirty thoughts, you nasty pervs). But where her mother was considered, no amount of selective memory would ever let her live down her slightly promiscuous behavior, not that she ever participated in any promiscuous behavior but her mom wouldn't see it that way and before you could even spell promiscuous, she'd have everybody, Ginny included, convinced of that.
Ginny gave a resigned sigh, signaling that she had given to Blaise's demands. She opened her mouth to say something but Blaise interrupted.
"Let me guess, you hate me, you loathe me. I'm despicable, I'm evil, I'm a bitch. Save your breath."
"What, you think those are the only insults I have? Where you're concerned Zabini every insult known to wizard applies and then some." Ginny said, unwilling to let her have the last word.
"Well one day, we'll have to sit down so you can inform me of them but not right now," Blaise replied. "Right now, you'll dance with Dragon. And I'll get the hell out of here."
"That's supposed to my line," Ginny muttered.
"Tough," Was Blaise's only response. Catching Nott's eye, she waved him and Draco over.
"Feeling better?" Nott inquired.
"Much," Blaise said.
"That's good to hear." Draco said, relieved. "For a second you had me worried when you went all crazy."
"Draco, love," Blaise said sweetly. "If you don't want me to go all crazy again you'll file what just happened into our 'Don't Mention' folder. You know, right between the 4th year incident and all the times you lost a Quidditch match to Potter."
"Gotcha," Draco said hastily.
"Now you two, dance," she all but ordered. Once again Draco jumped to do as she said but this time Ginny unenthusiastically followed his lead. "Nott, you come with me."
Nott said something to Draco in low voice before heading out with Blaise leaving Ginny and Draco cagily watching each other. When Ginny made no attempt to move from her spot Draco swallowed past all his uncertainties, forced a charming smile on his face, held out his hand and said gallantly, "Shall we?"
"Must we?" Ginny replied. Apparently Malfoy didn't hear her because he took a step towards her.
Impulsively, she took a step back.
Confused nevertheless determined, he took another step towards her.
And Ginny took another step back.
Swearing that this would be the last time, he once more stepped forward.
Ginny had taken half a step backward when she realized the plain stupidity of her actions. She was going to have to dance with him anyway, so playing cat and mouse was pretty pointless and it made her look like a coward. Which she was not, she was a Gryffindorian remember? She could handle anything, including dancing with Malfoy. All she had to do was think happy thoughts and she'd probably come out unscathed.
With this new ideology firmly in mind, Ginny took a step towards Malfoy.
Who promptly took a step back.
"Okay we are not going to do that again," Ginny said.
Somewhat abashed to be caught backing away from a girl, he immediately went on the offensive. "You started it," he accused.
From years of bantering with Malfoy, Ginny automatically disagreed. "No I didn't."
"Yes you did. You took the first step back, so you started it," Malfoy said.
"No I didn't." Ginny argued. "Technically it started when you took the first step towards me so I took a step back therefore making you the initiator."
Draco stared at her. "Does that actually make sense to you?" he asked.
Somebody cleared their throat behind them. Both expecting Blaise, they slowly turned around.
Instead they were faced with the assistant DJ whose job it was to gather requests from the party goers.
"You the birthday boy?" At Malfoy's nod, he continued, "Got a message for you," and handed him a sealed envelope before walking away.
The minute Draco touched the envelope it began to sizzle and give off smoke. Within a few seconds it exploded and they heard Blaise's magnified voice.
"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU TWO NOT DANCING?"
Thankfully Blaise had had the common sense to charm it so only Draco and Ginny where able to hear it.
"I thought she was supposed to be leaving." Draco muttered, annoyed.
"Apparently not. She's probably watching us from somewhere." Ginny replied, scanning the room for any sign of Blaise.
At that moment the song that Ginny had eagerly professed her love for and was the source of her current aggravation started up again. It had ended some minutes ago, but it was now back and with a vengeance.
"This song is dedicated to our guest of honor, the Dragon himself, and his lady of the evening. Enjoy." The DJ announced in a magnified voice so everybody heard it to their combined horror. The lights immediately dimmed and the crowd slowly parted so they could make their way towards the center of the dance floor.
"This has Zabini written all over it." Ginny said darkly.
"Was there ever any doubt?" Draco replied wryly. Unlike his 'lady of the evening', Draco was quickly getting over his horror and starting to appreciate all the attention being sent their way. Never let it be said that he was one to waste an opportunity to promote himself. Putting an arm around her waist, he half dragged, half pulled her to the center of the dance floor dimly aware that she'd made a sort of whimpering protesting sound. Once there, he used his other arm to pull her flush against him and being of the male gender, he took a moment to appreciate the way they fit. Then he awkwardly tried to drape her arms around his neck but they kept slipping off.
"A little help would be nice," he said against her hair.
"Unicorns," Ginny whispered. "Pretty, pretty unicorns. All white and sparkly."
"I beg pardon?" Draco said sure that he'd heard wrong.
"I like unicorns," Ginny sighed dreamily. "Unicorns make me happy. Happy, happy, happy."
Well on the bright side, there wasn't anything wrong with his hearing. On the not so bright side, there was definitely something wrong with the babbling girl in front of him.
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A/N: Whoops, looks like Ginny's going over the deep end. Again. This isn't where I had originally planned to end (I had like three more scenes I wanted to do) but then I realized that I'd written almost fifteen pages and that there was no way I'd get to where I wanted to be before the night was over. And considering that's it's been a month since I updated I decided to leave off here. The way I see it, it's better that I give you guys sumin' instead of nuthin' at all. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, enjoyed getting to know Dragon. Don't worry if he wasn't as arrogant and as presumptuous as you, thanks to my background info on him, expected him to be. He's still in his post-Daisy stage, remember? (even though Nott thinks he's over it). I'm predicting that with a little 'help' from Ginny (whom if you haven't noticed by now he doesn't recognize i.e. he has no idea that the girl he's dancing with and planning on getting with is the one and only V. Weasely) and Lord knows what 'help' means where she's concerned, he's going to going to go back to normal and fast. Hence, chapter seven's title, How The Dragon Got His Groove Back. I'd tell you be on the lookout for it but the thing is I'm working on scholarships for college and I have two due by the end of this month so chapter seven might not be up for another three weeks. Bare with me peeps, after that I'm home free and I'll be updating a whole lot more. As always, review and tell me what you think!
Crazy is as crazy does,
-TDL