AN: Last chapter I'm doing for a while, PLEASE R&R

Picking and Choosing (Tales of Hogwarts Romance) Chapter 11

(AN: Alright, this chapter is by far the shortest one so far, but I hope you like it anyway.)

Twenty minutes later Illy came back down stairs; her hair was pulled half up in a silver clip, embellished with blue stones that matched her dark blue ¾ sleeve top, and dark blue ballet flats. She had taken out all but one pair of earnings, silver hoops that matched her crystal ball necklace, and her eyes were lightly brushed in dark blue and silver sparkles. Draco was still sitting in the common room, reading through a thick black book entitled Tell Tale Signs by Schilliant Broadieum. Dolan was still getting ready in his room and besides Draco the room was bare. Illy walked to the chair Draco was reading in and came to sit on its black leather arm,

"How long are we going to be playing the silent game?" She asked. He didn't even glance in her direction. "Draco" She breathed out his name, feeling defeated, he was a wall and breaking him down would be impossible.

Shivers went down his spine when she sat next to him and spoke, but when she said his name…every hair on his body stood on end.

"Draco I don't know what you want? I said what you wanted; I didn't get you into trouble, so aren't we even? You can't even tell me that this is all because of the twins stupid pranks, it's not like they wouldn't do the same thing if I had never come to school here!" She was begging him, pleading, but he was determined, his eyes narrowed on the same line he'd been reading since she sat down. "Please…I don't want to go to school here and have one of my best friends ignore my existence, I know you don't even want to do this, so why the self sacrifice? I don't understand all of this! What's the point?" She was stroking his ego, granted it wasn't exactly what he wanted her to say, but she was doing her best to manipulate his feelings without lying. She rose from her spot and lifted the book from his hands, his glare remained stoic but he didn't protest. She looked around the common room for any stragglers on couches before straddling his legs and resting her knees on either side of his thighs, looking directly into his eyes with her piercing black glare. The first few times her eyes had changed he hadn't noticed the connection, but it was passion, any time she was truly angry, or upset it was her bodies warning to the world, she was good at hiding her emotions, but her eyes gave her away.

"Draco Malfoy, answer me when I speak to you" Her tone was dark now, almost frightening, he tried to look away but she had locked his gaze, no point backing down.

"The point is, I'm your best friend and I did something to make you hate me." He was doing his best to remain unemotional as he spoke, but he could feel himself shaking ever so slightly under her. She leaned in closer to him, pushing hair from his eyes with her fingers, she almost giggled as she realized that it had grown an inch and a half since their fight, but she had to make him think that she was dead serious about the conversation she was having.

At first she wasn't sure what else she could do to change his mind, she was ready to get up from the chair's arm and leave, but she noticed the change in her eyes from across the room, most people thought that they changed with her mood, but they were far more useful…they predicted it. When she looked in the mirror on the far wall she knew right away the only thing that could bring Draco to his knees.

"I've forgiven you, you know that." She said, pleading to him in her voice and expression.

"But the same thing that I did to make you hate me… it made me love you." She hadn't been expecting anything quite that intense to come out of his mouth so quickly, her gaze relaxed some, but only for a moment.

"You know…I can't do that Draco, you know I can't. But I can't keep on killing my urges, every bit of good news, every time I'm upset, I'm spoiled, I'm too used to your company, there's too much alone time when I'm on the ground…" She had lost more control of the situation than she thought, if her eyes weren't screaming anger what had they been trying to tell her?

"Spoil me then…just once, we'll never talk about it again, I swear on my name. Killious it will all go back to normal, just give me one chance to see what I'm going to spend the next four years wishing would happen." His normally marble skin had become a more natural color, an averagely pale flesh tone, his eyes sparked with hope.

"One…that's all I can do." She made their pact with silent glances and sharply drawn breaths. Illy leaned closer to his face, and moved her knees to touch the back of the chair so that she could sit in his lap comfortably with her legs around the front of his waist.

(AN: I know, a horrible cliff hanger, but I was in a rush to get the chapter done, and I enjoy playing with minds, R&R, -Richard S.)