Animal I have Become

"Don't even lie to me, Pans," Draco growled as he glared at her reflection. "They are so obviously visible." He looked at himself in the mirror. "I mean, look at that! They protrude almost a whole inch!"

"Draco, if they were that long, you wouldn't be able to speak articulately," Pansy reasoned as she looked over her fingernails to make sure they were all even.

"Hyperbole, Pansy, learn to love it," Draco bit back.

"You're so angry all the time," Pansy replied with a pout.

"It's a side-effect," the blonde explained.

"Of being bitten?" Pansy asked. When Draco nodded, she just rolled her eyes.

Suddenly, Draco groaned and flopped back in his chair rather inelegantly but extremely melodramatically. "This is social suicide!"

"Yeah, 'cause you bit yourself and got yourself infected with vampirism," Pansy said sarcastically. "It's so plainly all your fault."

"Oh, shut up," Draco grumbled. He slouched against the back of his chair and said nothing more, leaving Pansy to muse silently to herself.

As Draco sat there, thinking about rather menacing thoughts, an aroma wafted into his room. It was a pleasing aroma, but one that Draco knew wouldn't have mattered much a week ago. The hint of cinnamon in the almost overwhelming vanilla calmed his nerves and drove his brooding mood away. Pansy noticed the slight change in him.

"What's up, Draco?" she asked.

Draco took in a lungful of the odor. "I smell something very…pleasant."

Pansy tried to smell whatever it was that relaxed Draco. "I don't smell anything. I think you can only smell it because of your heightened senses."

Draco sighed. "I really don't like being a vampire."

"We just need something to get your mind off of it, then," Pansy suggested.

"Like what?" he asked. He took another whiff of the air; something had been added to the mix. It was bitter but sweet at the same time. The scent was very familiar to Draco.

"I don't know," Pansy pondered aloud. "Maybe go on a date or something like that."

"Sure, 'cause you just know every guy in this whole castle is lining up to go on a date with a vampire," Draco declared sarcastically. The aroma became stronger; his other senses sang and his mind almost screamed at him to go find where its source was. "Besides, vampires have a fated mate, so a good lot that'll do me."

"Question: is whiney, little bitch also a side effect of vampirism?" Pansy asked. "It doesn't really matter if it is, I just wanted to know."

Draco merely made a face at her before he stood up and walked toward the door.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"To find wherever this scent is coming from," he replied. "I need to know."

"Fine, but I'm coming with," she declared as she jumped from the chair she was sitting in to follow Draco.

Many turns, a few – dozen – staircases, and one too many detours later, the pair had found themselves out on the Quidditch Pitch in the shadow of a lone flyer practicing various breakneck techniques. Realization dawned on Draco almost immediately.

"Aw, fuck no."

"What? Who is it?" Pansy asked, squinting up at the distant figure. "You know my eyes aren't as good as yours are now."

The figure seemed to sense that they were standing far below him, because he began to descend toward them. It wasn't long before Pansy could tell who he was without Draco's aid. She got out a snicker before Draco fixed her with a homicidal glare.

"And what can I do for you two?" Harry asked when he came to land near them.

Pansy grinned as Draco scowled and rolled his eyes.

"It seems you're gonna be the one to tame this animal," she informed the Gryffindor through a very amused grin.

End.