I awoke the next morning with only a mild hangover, but the panic I felt at what had happened the night before made a severe hangover seem preferable. It wasn't just what did happen that troubled me, but what could have happened.

I barely made it to class on time and couldn't really focus when I was there, which was fine I guess; I was already ahead in my studies. The course was Magical-Muggle Technological Integration. It taught about cutting edge new ways that the magical community is using magic to enhance muggle technology while discretely coordinating with muggles in their industry.

When class was over, I walked outside and sat down in the courtyard, mindlessly playing with my phone for a moment before setting it down and staring up at the sky. It was cloudy and gray, the kind of day I'd come to enjoy the most lately.

I heard music coming from my phone. Huh. Draco? I had to wonder how he could just call me like that after what happened last night.

I picked up, "Hello?"

"Hey, what are you doing right now?" he asked. "A few of us wanted to get together for some drinks in an hour. Care to join us?"

"Who are a few of us?" I asked, knowing my answer should be a flat 'no'.

"Alex, Crystal… a few girls Crystal was bringing along, apparently."

I thought for a long moment about how I could continue this conversation.

"Draco, about last night…"

"What about it?" he responded bluntly.

"I…" Words were failing me. I should have just told him to go fuck himself. He knows I'm engaged.

"I don't know."

"We'll be down at Shadow Alley at four for happy hour, if you'd care to join us," he continued. "See you in a bit."

He hung up. Obviously I wasn't going.

My phone goes off again as I start walking. Ron.

"Hey you," I say as I pick up.

We talked for a bit about not much of anything.

"Mhm…" I said, placing my hand on a stone at the campus gate. The gate opened, the school disappeared behind me and I stepped out onto the sidewalk and walked down the road.

"What are your plans for tonight?"

"Oh nothing, just a quiet Friday in, I guess. Going out in a little while… Actually, my ride is here. Can I call you a bit later?"

"Sure," he said, "Love you."

"I love you too," I said, hanging up the phone. My wand was in my hand as I stepped into a dark alleyway that all Muggles find too "creepy" to walk down. This probably has something to do with the repelling charm cast in the area, making it highly undesirable to those who don't belong.

I can't believe I'm doing this. I tap a brick wall with my wand, think the words "Magic runs through these veins," and step straight through to the other side.

Shadow Alley is one of many bars in New York City reserved for the city's magical community. It is also the cheapest, cheaper even than any muggle bar in the entire surrounding area. It's primary customers are students, stoners, musicians and artists. I suppose the students like it there because they often tend to be stoners and tend to think they're one of the latter two.

The atmosphere is unusual; there is no stage, but music is always playing. The customers bring their own music. At any given time, there always seems to be someone or a group in there playing instruments and singing, sometimes quite well, sometimes terribly. Tonight was thankfully one of the better nights.

This may have had something to do with Draco, up at the bar with an acoustic guitar, picking and crooning away with volume added by an amplification spell.

As he finished his song, he looks up at me, smiling a bit and pats the stool next to his. I took a seat.

"What did you do today?" I asked, not sure how to start a normal conversation with him now without help from cliched ice breakers.

"I got high, went to class, got high again, and… I guess I'm here now, aren't I?"

I giggled, "Sounds like a productive day."

I shook my head and ordering a drink from the bartender. The Following Friday, named for how long it'll make you black out until. Maybe. I made that part up. I can taste the tequila in it. Bad decision. I seem to be making a lot of those lately.

I looked over at his friend Crystal and she looked back at me, nodding, acknowledging my existence. I nodded back. She was tall, with short black hair, green eyes and dressed head to toe in black. Her girlfriend April, a blonde little girly-girl, was leaned against her, already drunk, her head on Crystal's shoulder.

More people were crowding in and the place was starting to look like a bar should on a Friday night. A few guys show up with guitars, a bass and a drum kit they pull out of an impossibly small bag (simple magic that never fails to amaze me when I really get to thinking about it.)

Time passes. Glasses and bottles come and go. The conversations get stupider and weirder. I like it.

I had promised myself I wasn't going to get drunk tonight, but here I was again and already worse off than I was the night before. I stopped drinking for the time being; things get hazier, then started to come back into focus before I order my last drink for the night.

Another Following Friday. Why the hell not?

We head out early and Malfoy calls up a cab; I tell him we could walk but he shrugs it off. Money has never exactly been an issue for him.

I know I should just get back to my room and go to bed, and Ron… I should call Ron. But somehow I find myself going back to Draco's apartment with him. First year students generally aren't allowed to live off campus, but he somehow made it happen. For a Malfoy, money seems to solve most problems.

This isn't the first time I've been here, and it looks the same as it usually does. It's a simple two bedroom apartment, just enough room for parties and guests to sleep over if needed in the aftermath. The living room is furnished with two couches, a book shelf and a large coffee table. A large flat-screen TV hangs on the wall over a dresser.

Draco leaves the room to take a shower and I take off my shoes and my jacket, walking over to the bookshelf for something to pass the time. Something I hadn't noticed before catches my eye: "The Grayest Black: Positive Dark Magic."

I'm intrigued. I'd read plenty on this subject, but I'd never seen a book solely devoted to the entire subject like this. I sit down with it on the couch and flip through it. A chapter catches my eye: mind alteration.

I had actually never studied this much. In Ministry-territory, this was viewed as a form of drug use and regulated accordingly. Over in America it was different. While the country had its own strict laws on drug use on the muggle side and the magical community followed this, there were no laws controlling mind altering magic, with the exception of academic institutions banning spells used to enhance focus and memory.

As I skimmed through, I found both history lessons, directions to other texts to actually execute spells and examinations of the "theory" of mind alteration. One section was particularly lengthy, one detailing something called the Uninhibition Enchantment.

"Jeremy Clay believed that only beneath our shells-our control mechanisms and the characters we learn to play in life-is our true self. This is the true, free person, more animalistic. This person is not bound by regrets, fears, societal norms or responsibilities. Clay recognized that these controls were in place within ourselves and society for a reason, and emphasized that this enchantment, like anything which alters the mind, should be performed cautiously and in moderation. Otherwise, those affected could experience irreversible effects on their lives, relationships or even their bodies and minds."

"Good book," Draco said, coming down the hall in a pair of shorts, a shirt in his hand as he sat down next to me, a towel in his other. He wasn't fully dried off yet. The water reflected light on his toned, lean shape and I could tell he could see me looking him over but, at this moment, I didn't care.

"Reading something interesting?" he asked, grinning devilishly at my eyes scanning him. I look away… my cheeks felt flushed. Am I blushing?

"Oh, just… uninhibition enchantments. I think its fascinating. Dangerous though."

Draco nodded.

"It can be. I've tried it. It's… amazing though. The most amazing feeling you'll ever have. Complete freedom."

He was looking me right in the eye and I think he knew just how much this appealed to me.

"How… how does it work?" I ask.

Draco reached underneath the coffee table, grabbing his wand and then taking my hand in his.

"Well, the form of it I'm familiar with is mutual inhibition. It's the safest way to do it, and the most stable. Doing it to yourself is not so stable, and leads to a lot more problems. To my understanding, the connection between two people, the combined magic, stabilizes the process and allows the process to go more… smoothly. It keeps your mind from going too out of control and causing a 'bad trip'."

I sat in silence, my finger brushing over Draco's palm, looking at his hand grasping mine gently, then up into his eyes.

"Can you show me?" Maybe Draco wasn't the best person to do this around, but I needed this. That nagging, perfectionist bitch in the back of my head, I needed her to shut up, just for a little while. I needed to be free. And even then, even drunk, she's in there somewhere, yapping away.

"I could. But you have to really want it. You have to mean it. Do you really want it?"

I think hard, but already know the answer.

"Yes," I say after a long pause.

He nods, placing his wand between us.

"There is no technical incantation. It's all non-verbal and all done through a very specific thought process by the caster and by both participants. Now… I want you to think about all of the things that hold you back, the walls, the controls you have for yourself."

"Already there."

His eyes were locked on mine and I can't pull mine away.

"Do you want to let it all go?"

"Yes."

"Do you consent to let them go?"

I hesitated; reason crept back into my head for just a moment.

"Y-yes."

"No, you have to state your consent. I have to know, truly know beyond any doubt that you do. Now… do you consent?"

I felt fire in my eyes as I prepared to finally let it go for however long this lasted. I could already imagine what could soon happen, what could be happening at any moment as soon as I was free to do whatever I wanted. Draco's shirt was still off, and I was imagining how it would feel to run my hands all over him, to touch him, to have those strong arms just throw me down and just…. ugh.

"I consent."

The air around his wand lightly glowed a warm color, and that light flowed to both of us. It washed over our faces, down both of our bodies.

I felt exactly the same for a few moments… and then I feel free. More free then I've ever been. And there Draco was, right in front of me, touching me.

Looking at me.

Wanting me.

I was surprised I'm not the one who made the first move.

Let me know what you think! :)