Chapter Six: When the Going Gets Tough… You Deal With It

Draco sat, chewing slowly and glaring heavily at Potter from across the Great Hall. Blaise was still reading the morning paper and Draco threw it a glance. He had already read the story and to say the least, it hadn't put him in a good mood. Potter was reading the paper now, Weasel and Granger hanging over his shoulders like the fucking suck-ups they were.

The headline couldn't have been any louder if it had shouted at him. Does Break in Chaos Mean Prison Break? Honestly, the people at the Prophet grew stupider and stupider every day with their ridiculous headlines, but it had caught his attention nonetheless.

The article was of course all about the Death Eaters that had been captured at the Ministry a year ago, his father included. It annoyed Draco that the only reason the papers were reporting on this particular story was because of a lack of real news. The pages of The Daily Prophet and other notable news sources had been sending out empty stories for weeks now. The Dark Lord had mysteriously stopped wrecking havoc on the wizarding world, and it had everyone anxiously awaiting his next attack. Many people, like the morning's article read, seemed to think that the lack of activity from the Dark Lord meant that he was devising a plan to break his followers out of Azkaban; Draco thought they were probably right. No one knew for sure of course, certainly not the wizarding press, but even they were known to have a hit every once in a while, right?

Draco hated reading stories about the fiasco at the Ministry, especially when they were written without any real point at all, just to remind the public that the big dogs weren't completely useless. The stories always made Draco feel queasy and embarrassed, as if it had been him at the Ministry that night and not his father. They inevitably also made him think about when his father would be getting out of prison and what that would mean for him when it happened. He wanted his father out of Azkaban, he did. He couldn't imagine what sorts of things the man had been put through, but he was also afraid of getting the Mark. He was ashamed to admit it, but he always wished that the break out would be delayed for just a little longer, always a little longer. It wasn't as if he needed to be reminded of his predicament at breakfast every other week.

Draco went back to glaring at Potter now. His face didn't look too worried about the news, but his eyes were slightly narrowed as he tossed the paper aside and continued on with his breakfast. Draco stared at him for a few more moments but the idiot boy wonder didn't even pay him one glace and it made him angrier then he already was. Of course he wouldn't look at Draco; he never did, even when the article had said the name Malfoy twelve times. He was too bent on saving the world to care about anything but himself and his two stupid friends. Draco snorted at his own thought. If Potter ended up saving the world he would get to his knees and kiss Dumbledore's old, wrinkly arse. The Dark Lord and Potter would probably end up killing each other.

Blaise finally finished with the paper and turned to Draco. "You think they're right?" he asked in a hushed voice.

Draco shrugged, wanting to look as if the article hadn't bothered him. "If they are, they have no idea," he said carelessly.

Blaise nodded. "Yeah probably, but I bet they're right. It has to be getting close; it's already been more than a bloody year."

"Yeah," Draco said, and he didn't speak again until it was time for classes.

"Going to Nott's party tonight?" asked Blaise as he and Draco strolled into the corridor from their Transfiguration lesson.

Draco shook his head. "Can't, I have to patrol- 10:00 to midnight and so does Pansy and all the other prefects."

Blaise groaned. "Nott's a fucking genius," he said sarcastically. "Count on him to have a party when half the bloody house has duty."

Draco shrugged and began to make his way down the stairs to the Great Hall for dinner. "You might be able to get a lay," he said, "and I'm sure you'll be able to get plenty pissed- Nott's fire whisky connections are 99 percent of the reason his parties are ever any good."

"Yeah well," said Blaise. "A lay will be easy and I might even go as far as to say inevitable- getting drunk too, but what's the fun of that if you're not there?"

Draco smirked. "You don't need me to oversee you fucking someone do you?" he asked derisively.

Blaise smirked right back. "You know what I mean."

Draco let out a quiet laugh. "I'd much rather be going to a party then going off to catch fucking little brats out of bed." It was true, but he would also like to be going to the party so that he could get drunker then hell and forget the plethora of concerns weighing him down for a few hours. But of course not, it was just his luck that patrol nights for himself and Potter were Fridays, every fucking week for the rest of the year. He had to admit that only having to patrol one night a week was a nice Head Boy perk, much better then the three nights a week deal the prefects got, but it didn't make him want to go.

"Ah well, bad luck I guess," Blaise said with a shrug.

Draco snorted and the pair continued on their way to dinner.

Classes had gone slowly, probably because Draco had just wanted the day to be over; he wanted this first week to be done with.

When dinner was done and over with, Draco had bid Blaise goodnight and began towards his post for the patrol, but a light hand on his shoulder had stopped him. Draco turned his head to see who it belonged to and found himself face to face with Pansy.

"Hi," she said with a gentle smirk and a raise of her eyebrow.

Draco smirked as well and continued on his way, Pansy right next to him. "Good evening," he said simply. He should've known she'd do this.

"You've hardly spoken to me at all this week," she said, looking at her fingernails as they walked along.

Draco rolled his eyes, but it was all in good fun. "I've had a lot to do," he said, keeping his same simple tone.

Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. "Oh, has that big, nice, new room been keeping you occupied?"

Draco gave a short laugh. "Perhaps you've forgotten that it comes complete with a deranged savoir?"

She scoffed at him. "Please, Draco. Don't tell me you can't get away from him. Blaise has told me how big your room is, and that you have your own sleeping quarters… he isn't coming in there is he?"

"God, no, I'd have to kill myself then, and besides, he isn't the only thing I've been dealing with."

"Oh, no?"

"I'll have you know, being head Boy isn't all fun and games, there's work involved as well."

She was smiling now. "Work? What kind of work?"

"Work that your refined ears couldn't possibly handle hearing about."

She snickered. "Oh my poor, poor baby! How will you make it through the year?"

Draco was laughing lightly now too. "I haven't a clue," he said, and despite his playing, he thought that maybe there was a bit of truth in that last answer.

"So," Pansy started in a more serious tone, "Where are you patrolling tonight?"

"Fifth floor and yourself?"

"Third. Who are you partnered up with?"

Draco raised an eyebrow. "Who do you think?"

She smirked again. "Ah, well have fun."

"I'm sure I'll have so much I won't know what to do with myself," Draco drawled sarcastically. "I'm supposed to show him the duties of a patrol; I suppose Dumbledore thinks he's too much of an idiot to figure things out on his own."

She laughed at that. "Please, he's probably heading off with Granger and Weasley this very second. I'll be surprised if you even see him."

Draco sighed. "You're probably right. I'll spend all night walking these damned corridors alone and for no reason, the younger students aren't brave enough to sneak out in the first week of school, and the older ones never get caught." He made himself sound as pitiful as he could, knowing that Pansy would bite.

Pansy smiled slyly at him. "I could offer you an alternative."

"Could you?"

She nodded. "I could," she said, and then she trailed a finger down Draco's neck.

He gave her a sly look of his own. "Why Pansy, we haven't fucked against a wall in the longest time."

She slid her hand inside his robe and into his back pocket. "Are you offering?" she whispered into his ear in what would be a seductive voice to anyone who wasn't immune to it. Draco stopped walking suddenly and pushed her up against the wall so quickly, it made her gasp in shock.

"Maybe," he said, getting so close to her he could feel her heart beat against his chest, and then he let her go and continued on his way, prominent smirk in place. "I thought it was you who was offering."

She stayed pressed against the wall for a few seconds before she caught up with Draco, smoothing her black chin-length hair. "You're a prick," she said, sounding truly flustered. They had been apart for nearly the entire summer and the whole week.

Draco gave a low chuckle. "Are you really thinking about it that much?" he asked, grabbing his cock rather lewdly and giving it a little shake.

She rolled her eyes at him again but this time it was serious. "Please, Draco, I know you want it too. It's been the whole summer."

"How do you know I haven't already fucked someone?"

"I talk to everyone one you fuck."

"Ah yes, I keep forgetting." Actually he knew that rather well and fucked girls Pansy talked to just to make her jealous, he liked the extra attention.

She made a sound through her nose and crossed her arms but didn't say anything else.

Draco smiled. So she was going to play that game was she? "Let me guess, you aren't going to let me touch you now, are you?" he chuckled, reaching out to tuck her hair behind her ear only to have her pull away.

She continued to remain silent, glaring, and Draco actually frowned. There was true emotion behind the glare, not the fake anger he usually saw there.

"What?" he asked, stopping so that she walked a few paces ahead of him before whirling around.

"You're still treating this like it's a game." She spoke calmly but Draco could sense the anger behind her words.

"Merlin, what the fuck are you on about now?" This was the last thing he needed. Perhaps he should've fucked her against the wall when he had the opportunity.

"It's seventh year, Draco!" Draco groaned inwardly, shit. "You know what we're supposed to do at the end of this year, yet you'll still fuck around, while I'm stuck waiting for you! It's not like I have a fucking choice, everyone treats me like I'm out of bounds because of you! And yet there you are, fucking every damn girl you see!"

Draco really did groan now. "I already told you I don't care who you fuck," he said, exasperated.

"You know how everyone is Draco! You know they won't touch me unless you personally told them to and even then they'd probably think it was some fucking test of loyalty and still wouldn't touch me!" Draco did know this of course. And it had better damn well stay that way, he thought. Pansy wasn't his girlfriend, he'd never had one, but she was his.

"Why must you bring this up now, Pansy?"

"Oh! Go ahead and act like you're the only one who has problems! Act like you have so much to worry about! I have shit to worry about too! You should've heard my mum this summer! 'Oh such a shame about Draco's father, perhaps you could cheer him up, Pansy' or 'I was just talking to Narcissa the other day, Pansy, and she says Draco's grown so much over the summer'! She's fucking pushing me, Draco! Don't tell me your mother hasn't been doing the same!"

She was right; Draco's mother had talked an awful lot about Pansy over the summer, so much so that it had grown annoying. Pansy was who he was supposed to marry. His parents would never force him to marry anyone, but they made it no secret how much they wanted it to be Pansy. She was pureblood, Slytherin, pretty, came from old money, and they both liked her to boot. Draco liked Pansy too, but not in that way. Sure, he'd fucked her more then he had any other girl, but she was still more a friend to him then anything else. He didn't love Pansy.

She seemed to read his mind. "I don't love you either, Draco! But you know as well as I do that we're going to have to do this! God, what is it with you and falling in love anyway?"

Draco glared. "I don't have to do anything," he said, sounding like his father, but Merlin was that ever a lie! There were a lot of things he had to do; marrying Pansy Parkinson was probably going to be one of them. "And I don't care about being in love." That was a lie too, one that he told himself often. He didn't know why he wanted to fall in love, he wanted what his parents were lucky to have found he supposed. He wanted to look at a woman one day with the same expression his father wore when he looked at his mother, he wanted to be able to come home to a woman who would be genuinely happy to see him and support whatever he chose to do with his life. Many times he'd wondered if perhaps his parents had worked at falling in love, but the more he tried to picture that with Pansy, the more unlikely it became., there was just something… missing with her.

Pansy laughed at him. "You can't hide that from me Draco Malfoy! You can try, but I know you too well."

Draco snorted. "Oh you know me, do you? There's so much you don't know, it'd make you sick!"

Pansy gave a heavy sigh and backed up to the wall before leaning against it. She rubbed her temples and closed her eyes. "I did not come here for this," she said quietly. "I followed you for a quick fuck, not to have a row with you."

Draco narrowed his eyes. "You started it, I was just playing around and you decided to get all angry with me."

"Well it makes me angry when you take pleasure out of the knowledge that you're the only boy I can fuck."

Draco rolled his eyes and simply stared at her.

She finally opened her eyes and pushed herself off the wall coming to stand right in front of him. "Look," she said softly, bringing her arms up to wrap loosely around Draco's neck. "I know you have other shit going on, and this whole Head Boy mess probably has you stressed out, and don't forget that I read the paper this morning too, but we really do need to talk about this. Now may not be the time, but just think about it, okay?"

It sometimes shocked Draco that Pansy could read him so well, sometimes even better then Blaise could. He gave a small nod and just a tiny roll of his eyes.

Pansy gave him a strained, but genuine smile in return and then got up on tip toe to press a short gentle kiss to his lips. He kept his mouth closed, but couldn't deny that it felt good.

She stopped the kiss but didn't let him go and they just stood like that in the middle of the corridor for what felt like a long time while they were both supposed to be patrolling, Draco's hands lightly resting on the small of Pansy's back, her fingers running through the short hair at the nape of his neck. They just stood there and stared at each other. It wasn't uncomfortable; they were reading each other's faces, each trying to see what they really thought of the situation they were in.

Draco didn't know why, but he leaned in and kissed Pansy. She kissed back and it felt innocent enough at first, but it didn't take long before Pansy's robe was on the floor and she was pressed against the wall again, only this time Draco wasn't backing away.

"It has been too long," he whispered before tonguing her ear.

She gave a quiet moan and tried pushing Draco's robes off his shoulders.

This was why he always came back to Pansy. She'd fuck any way, anywhere, at any time. It was rough and good and… maybe not quite hot, he didn't think he'd ever really had mind-blowing, hot sex, but it was definitely good.

He pushed his body flush against her and she clawed at his back, pulling his white shirt out of his trousers and then clutching at his heated, bare skin. Draco vaguely remembered that they would be right in plain sight of anyone that decided to take a walk down the corridor, but he was too far gone to care. He managed to pull down her panties and began struggled with his fly, pulling on his zipper with fumbling fingers. It had been far too long and he couldn't stop now. He leaned in to nibble Pansy's neck at the base of her shoulder when a bright light suddenly shone directly in his face. He pulled back from Pansy, dazed for a second and disoriented.

He squinted in the light and tried to push the wand away, brilliant with its lumos spell, but it stayed annoyingly put.

"What the fuck?" Draco asked and then he immediately wished he hadn't said those exact words.

Professor McGonagall stood in front of him, looking furious. "What do you think you are doing, Mr. Malfoy!" she shouted at him, her lips white and her nose so flared that it looked like it might split in two. She looked beside herself, eyes terrifyingly wide. Draco gulped.

"Um," was all he managed. There was no way to lie himself out of this one.

Pansy squeaked and quickly pulled her underwear up and Draco backed away from her and yanked his robes from the floor, pulling them back around himself him to shield his hard-on. It was then that he noticed a very embarrassed, yet angry looking Potter standing just behind McGonagall.

"I cannot believe this!" McGonagall began. "Both Head Boys, not where they are supposed to be! Both of you off with prefects! I have never in my life witnessed such behavior! Ms. Parkinson, you should be ashamed! I am writing both of your parents and you both will report to Professor Snape first thing tomorrow morning!" She grabbed Pansy and Draco by the arms and began pulling them down the corridor like misbehaving first years, Potter followed, looking disgruntled.

She led them up a staircase and paused in front of a classroom. She let Pansy go but kept a vice grip on Draco's arm. "Fifty points from Slytherin!" she said looking at them both. "If I ever catch you two at that again I will-" but they didn't learn what she would do, she seemed too angry to say it. "Ms. Parkinson, if you put one toe off this floor before midnight it will be fifty more points!" And then she spun around and began to drag Draco down the corridor again, Potter still tagging along.

She didn't stop until the three of them had climbed two more staircases. Finally they were standing at the patrolling spot on the fifth floor.

"The same goes for you too, Mr. Malfoy," she said, pointing a finger in his face. "And don't think for one minute that you're going to get off so easy, Potter," she continued, suddenly facing him. "I will personally see that you, Ms. Granger, and Mr. Weasley get what you all deserve! Head Boys indeed! I've never even heard of such behavior! You two are supposed to be the best behaved amongst the students! If this is how you will act then I don't know if either of you is fit for this job! If I hear of you boys doing one more thing against the rules- one more, it will be your heads!" then she turned on the spot and marched off.

Draco crossed his arms and glared at the wall in front of him.

Well, bugger.

Potter shifted around a little bit and unintentionally caught Draco's attention. Draco turned to face him, still glaring.

"What?" Potter asked, sounding annoyed.

"This is your fault, you know," Draco stated, glaring even more heavily.

Harry's eyes widened with indignation. "My fault? How is it my fault?"

"You were obviously caught first; if you hadn't been stupid enough to be seen with Weasel and Granger, McGonagall would've never come looking for me. She would've assumed we were where we were supposed to be." Draco knew that it wasn't fair to say this, but he didn't much care what was fair when it came to Potter… or anyone for that matter.

"You say that as if you were taking such great care not to get caught yourself," Potter said angrily.

"She wouldn't have come looking for me if you hadn't been caught first."

Potter rolled his eyes, how dare he roll his eyes at Draco. "Look," Potter said, "I know you don't like taking the blame for stuff that's your own fault, but I don't feel like dealing with it right now. Let's just get moving before McGonagall comes back and yells at us for not doing anything." He started walking quietly down the corridor, lighting his wand tip as he went.

Draco quickly moved to catch up with him but Potter didn't pay him any attention. Draco wasn't at all in the mood to be ignored and found it very irritating that Potter was doing just that.

"You're being rather loud, Potter," he said snottily when the silence had become too much for him. He was aware that he was contradicting himself, but didn't care.

Potter sighed. "Sorry that I don't do things exactly like you do. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?" Potter was rather fond of using sarcasm, Draco observed.

"No, I won't forgive you and you really are being too loud. You sound like you're stomping across the floor. Can't you just walk like normal people? Merlin, I can't believe you went off with Granger and Weasel, you're all loud. You three would've never caught anyone!"

"Leave my friends out of this, Malfoy," Potter growled slightly.

"Oh sorry, I know it must be awful to be reminded of them, they are rather-"

"You know," Potter cut in rather rudely, "Perhaps if you'd stop talking then there wouldn't' be so much noise."

Draco snorted imperiously, if such a thing was possible. "Next to your elephant feet my talking sounds like a whisper," Draco shot back.

"Just bloody shut your mouth, Malfoy!" Potter's voice rose.

"See, you're the loud one," Draco said, whispering for effect.

Potter let out a giant huff of a breath. Draco was happy to be getting under his skin; he was so easy to get to, but he fell quiet, waiting for a good time to say something again.

"We're not going to catch anyone," Draco said after a few minutes had passed. He smirked when Potter's eyes flashed angrily from behind his glasses.

"I know! Not with you opening your fat mouth every five seconds!"

Draco's smirk became more pronounced. "Do you have no perception of time, Potter? It's clearly been a few minutes since I opened my "fat mouth" as you so eloquently put it."

"Merlin, I cannot stand you! Why do you have to try your very hardest to give me hell? Do you really have nothing more interesting in your life?"

"Actually I have a lot of things in my life that are far more interesting than you, Potter. Do you not remember that I would be off shagging Pansy Parkinson right now if it weren't for you," Draco reminded him, he really was angry about that, as was his cock.

"Shut up, Malfoy."

"Do not tell me what to do."

"Shut up, Malfoy."

"Fuck off, Potter."

Potter suddenly stopped walking and moved over to the nearest wall before gently banging his forehead on it a few times in extreme frustration.

Draco raised an eyebrow at him. "You really are mentally deranged."

The rest of the night ended up going very slowly for Draco, he desperately needed a wank and that made it seem like the longest patrolling job he'd ever done. He and Potter argued the entire time, ensuring that they caught no one. Not even the dumbest fist year would've walked into the racket they'd made.

When they finally got to go to bed at midnight, they were both so annoyed and angry that they couldn't get to sleep, even after a good wank on Draco's part. Draco didn't know what time Potter went to sleep, just that he dreamed again. It was three a.m. before his own eyes finally closed.

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