A/N: Hey. New chapter up. In case you didn't notice. Writing this is so much more fun than doing homework, and that's why you're getting a lot this week.

Disclaimer: I don't own it!

Chapter 4: Tension

I had another goal now. The laughing worked. For the most part at least. She seemed to like me a little bit more.

But now, this was a good goal. I had made a list. And next on the list was sexual tension. After this was actual flirting, then kissing, then sharing something personal, because that was the real way to a woman's heart, and then finally, well, shagging.

No, I did not normally make lists on how to seduce woman. But this was different. This had to work. I had to get him back for what he did to me. And it had to go perfectly. I usually didn't get this obsessed about women. But this was a particular woman.

And besides, I needed the motivation or else I would get too disgusted with myself to continue. She was so young. Too young. Couldn't think about it.

Moving on to sexual tension. How best to create sexual tension?

Yesterday I tried leaning over her while she was grading papers. But then she accidentally bumped into my chest, and spilled her bottle of ink. It was not sexy. It was just awkward.

But today I had a plan. I remembered that anger the other day, when I said something about Weasley, how her blood boiled and she got up in my face. That was sexy. That was how I was going to do it.

Let's hope I get around to it better than the laughing went.

"You know that your mother was the smartest witch in her year?" I started. We covered Weasley the other day, so I decided to see what buttons I could press with Granger.

"I've heard," she said, cleaning up the feathers on the floor after the fourth years had burst apart many pillows. Just a few sweeps of her wand and it was all cleaned up.

"But did you also know she was very cocky?"

"Oh yeah?" she said. I thought I might have heard a slight temper beneath her cool words.

"Yeah. I see that you have a bit of that cocky thing too." I tried to be nonchalant, while packing books. "It's a wonder she was able to lower herself to Weasley's standards."

"Seriously?" she asked, dropping the box of feathers and spreading them all over the floor again. "Seriously, you just said that?"

I shrugged. "Sorry, just making an observation. She always seemed so much better than him. I was surprised when I heard that they got married. I'm also surprised it's worked out so far, what with-"

There was a loud sob. I looked up and saw that Weasley had turned her back to me, and was looking intently out the window, her shoulders shaking.

That was not the cold, icy rage I saw last week. She was crying. And I had no idea what to do. "Err…" I walked forward and thought about putting my arms on her shoulders, but thought better of it.

"Sorry," she said, wiping her eyes. "I just… sorry. Why would you say that? Were you trying to-"

"I was just trying to talk," I added, quickly. "Why? What did I say?"

"It's just that…" she turned around and looked at me, her eyes glistening with tears. Her nose was just a little pinker than usual. I had never seen anyone look so beautiful while they were crying. The sobs picked up again.

"Shh…" I said, gently setting my hands on her shoulders. "What's wrong?"

"I… I guess you actually don't know," she said, wiping her eyes. "My parents got divorced about ten years ago."

"They… they did?" Divorce was not something that was seen a lot of in wizard culture. I would have never guessed that they would.

She nodded, tears slowly streaming down her pink cheeks. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she said, trying to hold herself together. "Yeah, sorry. It happened a long time ago. It's just that sometimes… sometimes it gets to me." She sniffed.

I took a deep breath, and then took advantage of the situation. "Hey," I said, putting some gentle pressure on her shoulders. "If you ever need anything, I'm here for you, you know that? Even though your parent's and I didn't get along, I do know something about being just a footnote on their life."

She nodded, and then put her arms around me, pulling me into a hug.

Excellent. That did work. This wasn't exactly sexual tension, it's true. But it was somewhere. At least now I could feel her soft body pressed against mine. It was actually softer than I imagined it would be. My hands moved to her back, and I was tempted to let them move up to the thick curls on her head.

Deep breath again. I was no starting to realize that I may not have to fake this as much as I thought. This girl was absolutely gorgeous and, here she was, pressed up against me. Her curves molded against me, and I just wanted to reach under her shirt and caress her back, which I knew would be smooth, and white and….

Oh, bullocks. I pulled away. "Professor Weasley," I started.

She let out a short, unexpected laugh. "You can call me Rose, Professor. You've seen me cry now, there's no use being so formal." She backed up a bit and looked into my eyes.

"Alright," I agreed. "And you can call me Draco." I could smell her breath now, sweet and slightly minty. Her eyes were still glazed over with tears as she looked into mine. I could see that slight curiosity shining through them.

"Draco," she said, her voice wispy. She was slowly starting to rise up onto her toes.

Kissing was not next on the list. Definitely not. But I'd take it now, thanks.

"Rose," I breathed, moving my face down to meet hers.

When the door slammed open, banging hard against the wall.

"Malfoy? What the hell are you doing?"

A/N: Alright, so to my lovely three reviewers:

Beauty Eclipsed: Should I take it as a step down that I lost the exclamation point from the last chapter. I went from "Great chapter!" to "Great chapter." Does that mean it's not as good?

Resentment: Oh, there will be plot twists. Is my Draco too Ron-ish? I didn't really peg Ron as the type of guy to use his sexuality to do… well… anything. But I'll think about making him more Draco-ish.

Material Girl: They really aren't getting longer. I don't know why, that's just how it's turning out. But I did get you another one to read. Yay!