Author's Notes: Thank you for the review Armania :) Yes, this is mostly already written.

Chapter 2: Testing

The next weekend they went out on a Friday because Theo was planning on throwing a birthday dinner for his wife on the Saturday and Draco had agreed to attend.

Sometimes he would see women out that he had slept with before, especially when they went back to the same bar in the way they were doing this weekend. Ria wasn't there though and Draco managed to charm a perfectly acceptable young woman into his bed as a substitute.

He gave only brief thought to the fact that he was thinking of her as a substitute for Ria, because why on earth would he need a substitute for a one night stand?

"So do you come here often?"

Draco did give an undignified jump this time when that all too familiar voice purred those words into his ear. Somehow he had persuaded Blaise to come back to this place again and this time he'd made sure they came on a Saturday. He'd been preoccupied in watching Blaise have an argument with the blonde from a fortnight ago – one of the reasons why they never usually frequented the same place too many times in a row, and hadn't seen Ria approach.

He tried to cover up the unseemly response to the shock by turning around as slowly as possible. It didn't particularly help because she was wearing a grey dress that strangely matched the colour of his eyes and it was high necked and long sleeved and so damn short that Draco thought it was probably illegal to show that much leg. Especially when the legs were that good looking.

He licked his suddenly dry lips and then tried to pretend that he hadn't.

"As often as you it would seem." He tried to keep his voice light and casual as if his heart rate hadn't just doubled in the space of a few seconds.

Ria pulled a face that Draco would have hated on anyone else, but which on her looked rather enchanting. "I don't know why," she said equally lightly, "It's so boring." He definitely hadn't been prepared for the arm that hooked around his neck after that declaration. "Why don't you entertain me Draco?"

Oh Merlin. It wasn't often that he kissed women in places like this. He preferred to rely on his charms alone to lure them back to his bed because kissing in public was terribly uncouth in his opinion. He was more than prepared to break the rule now though and he dipped his head to capture her lips before he'd really thought about whether this was a good idea.

It really didn't help that she latched on to his mouth and nipped and sucked at his lips like she was some sort of expert and made Draco dizzily wonder if this was what he'd been missing by not sleeping with the same woman more that once in all this time because Ria seemed to know exactly what to do to his mouth to make him want to groan with desire and lose himself in her completely.

That they managed to get a taxi and managed to get into his apartment was something of a minor miracle as far as Draco was concerned. He had no idea how it had happened, but they were here and they were frantically pulling at each other's clothes the second they made it through the door. They only made it as far as the couch in the end, which was quite far enough as far as Draco was concerned because his body was thrumming with desire and he thought that if he didn't get some sort of relief soon he might actually faint from lack of blood to the head.

When that relief came Draco let out a cry that he thought might actually tear his throat in two and felt Ria climaxing around him in a vague sort of way because the pleasure had wiped out every other thought it his mind except for how good she felt and how much he had needed this.

Of course they couldn't stay on the couch all night and Draco wasn't inclined to kick her out so he carried her to bed and found that actually he had more than enough stamina to repeat the whole experience. This time it was more measured and Draco found that his thoughts were calmer and his body nearer to sated and that meant he could concentrate on her. On touching and kissing and exploring and learning exactly what would make her feel good and exactly what made her writhe and moan and act as if she was as out of her mind with desire as he'd felt before. She was beautiful when she came he realised, all flushed cheeks and flashing amber eyes and lean curves that arched perfectly away from the bed and made him hungry for more.

He brought her to one climax with his fingers and then when he joined their hips again held back until he managed to push her to her third of the evening, forcing his own pleasure to the back of his mind temporarily just so he could keep his eyes open and watch her fall apart around him in that deliciously tantalising way. It pushed him too close to the edge in the end and his own orgasm followed soon after.

They fell asleep wrapped around each other again when morning came he realised that once again he hadn't moved all night.

Draco had managed to extract himself without Ria stirring again and went to the kitchen to make himself some tea. He made some for her to because he felt it was only polite to do as much for her as he had last time. When he returned to the bedroom however, she wasn't there and he could hear the sound of the shower running in the bathroom beyond.

He raised an eyebrow at that and wondered if this was a sign he'd gone too far in sleeping with her twice. Did she now think it was acceptable to practically move in with him and make use of whatever facilities she took a fancy too? He really hoped not.

It was ten minutes before she emerged, dressed and with her still damp hair secured in some sort of twist on top of her head. She grinned at him and accepted the tea he held out, taking a large gulp of it as she dug around in her bag for something, taking out various items and dumping them on the dresser.

When she finally found what she was looking for – and Draco was giving some serious thought to just how she managed to fit so much stuff into such a small bag, he realised it was a watch. She looked at it and then wrinkled her nose.

"Sorry," she said finally breaking the silence that Draco was surprised to realise hadn't been too uncomfortable, "I'm supposed to be meeting my mother and sister for brunch today. There wasn't time to go home and shower. I can't be late, we're picking out wedding dresses." Draco realised he must have looked horrified at this piece of information because she chuckled as she shoved the watch and other things back in her bag and took another drink of tea. "My sister's wedding dress," she explained over the edge of her cup, "She's the one getting married."

"Oh." Draco let out a relieved breath at that. He didn't like the idea of Ria being engaged on so many levels he wasn't even going to bother trying to explain them all to himself.

"I really do need to hurry though," she said setting the empty cup down and looking at him with what seemed to be a hint of regret.

"Do you want me to call you a taxi?" He had called one before for other women. It was the least he felt he could do when they weren't making a fuss about leaving and the idea of doing something useful for Ria was unexpectedly appealing.

She subjected him to a long look. It was a look that made Draco feel as if she was contemplating his skill at ordering taxis rather than whether she actually wanted one.

"Why not," she said in the end, tilting her head in a way that suggested she was issuing a challenge and waiting to see how he rose to it. He wondered vaguely whether ordering muggle taxis was something that was particularly hard. None of the other women had acted like it was, but then Draco always left the actual ordering of the taxi to someone else. He had no idea how it was done.

All the same he had made the offer and needed to follow through on it. He went through to the living area and picked up the- well the muggle communication thing. Someone had explained to him when he'd rented the place that if he picked it up and dialled zero then he could speak to the man who sat behind the desk at the entrance to the building. The man could arrange for a long list of services, should Draco ever have need of them. He'd forgotten what most of them were, but summoning taxis was most definitely one of them.

Draco raised the… thing, to his ear and waited until the strange noise stopped and someone answered. It never took long. He'd been nervous the first time he'd done this, but he'd seen muggles using similar devices out in the bars. You held it to your ear and talked into it, it was simple really and holding it the right way up was hardly rocket science since it had numbers on it, though admittedly hearing someone's voice come out of the thing straight into his ear had nearly made him throw it across the room the first time it had happened.

That had been then though, now he considered himself a competent user of the muggle device and he spoke confidently when the man answered, well aware of Ria watching him with interest.

"I'd like a taxi please." He waited until the man asked a follow up question and responded with, "Immediately. Thank you," before he replaced the thing in its special holder.

He turned finally to see Ria looking at him with a charming smile that suggested he'd done something incredibly impressive. He had no idea why, but he was more than willing to smile back, especially when she walked slowly towards him and placed a hand on his chest. "Thank you, Draco." Her lips pressed against his just briefly and then she pulled away. "See you around."

She was gone, out the door before he could respond.

Not that he had any clue what he would have said.

He tried not to think about Ria too much after that. It was fairly easy for the first week simply because it was his turn to have Scorpius with him all weekend and that was more than enough to take his mind of all other things whilst he was around. He was doing his best to raise Scorpius differently to how he'd been raised, something that was made much easier by the fact that his son seemed to have inherited the best of his mother's and father's personalities, rather than the worst. He was an undemanding child, with Astoria's calmness and Draco's loving nature. That he had a loving nature hadn't actually been obvious to him until Scorpius was born and it wasn't something he showed very often to anyone except his son, but with proof of it living in the same house as him he could no longer deny that he valued love above much else. He wanted to be loved and accepted by someone else in the way that his son loved and accepted him.

Too bad the only people that accepted him were muggles, and despite the fact that he'd long ago got over his prejudices towards them Draco still didn't believe he could ever love or marry one of them. They were just too strange in their ways and he was not the sort of person who would be comfortable hiding his own magical nature.

No, he'd just have to wait and hope that one day enough of the past would be forgiven and forgotten that a witch might decide to give him a chance. Some days he thought it might happen, but most of the time he despaired of the possibility.

In the meantime his weekend with Scorpius came and went and Draco once again joined Blaise for their usual Saturday nights out.

The first was not too bad. He'd found a pretty woman who'd been more than willing to entertain him back at his apartment, and had left even before morning. It was certainly convenient, but Draco didn't mind them staying until morning. In fact in the depths of his heart he preferred them to stay till morning, so long as they didn't cause any trouble, because it meant he didn't have to sleep alone.

The second Saturday he'd found a woman who had wanted to stay, but she'd been so dreadful in bed that Draco had very nearly refused to go out the weekend after, claiming that he was physically damaged by the experience. It was only because Blaise would accept no such excuse and had all but dragged him to his favourite haunt that Draco consented to go at all.

This woman had been much better in bed. She was still in his bed in the morning as well and Draco had decided that she was probably going to cause him a bit of trouble, because she was looking at him with narrowed eyes after he'd promised to call her if she wrote down her number.

"What's your number?" she asked in return. He shrugged. He didn't have done of those muggle things and though he'd been asked the question before most women had taken his nonchalant shrug as a sign that they weren't going to get anything more out of him. This woman however was more persistent. "You don't know your number?"

When he shook his head and gave another shrug her face twisted into a scowl. "Liar."

Well it wasn't a lie so he didn't feel any guilt in saying, "I don't have one."

That infuriated her, judging by the look on her face. Draco was trying to remember her name. Remembering a woman's name really helped in situations like this. Unfortunately he couldn't remember if hers was Casey or Karen, or whether actually that was the name of the woman from last week.

"Liar," she spat again, "You're not going to call me. All you men are the same, just looking for a quick fuck. What makes you think you can treat women like that?"

"If you don't want to be treated like that don't go to bed with men you don't know." It seemed a logical to him, but as he'd suspected she was beyond logic.

"Oh why don't you just fuck off?" At least she followed that up by getting up and storming to the bedroom door. He sighed in relief, at least until he heard the crash of breaking glass from the living area. That made him shoot to his feet, glad that he'd already dressed.

He entered the living area just in time to see her hurl yet another glass ornament across the room and winced as it smashed against the wall. He wasn't particularly bothered about the ornament itself – he'd rented the apartment fully furnished and none of the things in here belonged to him – but he really didn't appreciate her making such a mess.

""What the hell are you doing?" The next ornament was aimed at him. He ducked and as it smashed on the wall behind him, seriously considered getting his wand.

"Fucking prick!" The woman was shrieking now, worked up beyond all reasoning, "All you men are fucking pricks!"

There was probably, Draco thought, some way to diffuse a situation like this, but he had neither the patience nor the knowledge to do so, instead he decided that the best thing to do was to get rid of the situation all together. The woman went to pick up a fourth ornament, a vase that Draco didn't even recognise, but he cut her off, grabbing her around the waist and lifting her easily off the floor. She lashed out, but Draco was prepared to risk the injury as he strode to the door.

It swung open as he approached, the one bit of wandless magic he was prepared to use at the moment because he didn't think the woman was in any position to notice. He dropped her unceremoniously in the corridor, still screeching and then was back inside with the door shut before she managed to get to her feet.

He summoned his wand and as the woman began to hammer on the door still screaming, Draco warded it, sealed the edges and cast a charm that prevented her noise from being heard inside the flat. She'd get bored and go away soon hopefully and it didn't really matter how long that took because Draco could apparate away from inside anyway. He did so now and once back at Malfoy Manor tried to soothe his thoughts by reading the new set of alchemical scrolls he'd received the day before.

He was definitely thinking about Ria now.