Oh, yay, smoochies!

And loving the reviews. Especially the in-depth gushings, speculations and analyses. They're my only payment, so thank you for being good providers!


Friday was doomed to be anything but easy. After classes were finally done, and she'd taken her bag back to her room, Hermione yawned and stumbled down to the dungeons. She was exhausted and she was prepared to beg to be let off the hook tonight, if it might work, but by now she knew Draco well enough to know that he wouldn't care. He'd probably even take extra pleasure in torturing her. So, she didn't beg or even say anything, she just went to her usual spot without saying a word.

"You're late," he informed her.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, not bothering to try and explain.

"What have I said about waiting?" he persisted.

He'd hardly been waiting; he was just sitting at his desk, doing his homework, as usual. He seemed to be doing as much homework as she was, it was slightly peculiar.

"I'm sorry," she repeated.

He turned around to pin her with a stare, but Hermione was too tired to care. She simply yawned, just barely covering her mouth with her hand in time. She wasn't overly concerned with her manners in front of Malfoy. The biggest problem she had right now was that she was seeing two of him.

"Why are you so tired?" he asked.

Hermione's eyebrow went up. "Lack of sleep." She wished she could have voiced that as a question.

"Why didn't you sleep? I let you go early yesterday."

"Friends wanted to see me. And then I had to do all the homework for today."

"You could have told your friends you didn't have time," he pointed out.

Hermione snorted and stumbled slightly. "Hardly!"

"Sit down, before you fall down," he sneered.

Hermione blinked and looked down at the floor. It did look strangely inviting in spite of her knowing how cold it was.

"No, not on the floor, Theo would kill me if you got pneumonia. Sit on the bed."

Hermione looked strangely at Draco, but did as he said, sitting on the edge of the bed. "You mean, Zabini would kill you."

"Him too, I suspect," he mumbled. "Why didn't you just let homework be homework and go to sleep?"

She tried saying something but the words couldn't get out and finally she made a frustrated sound. "You know, it would be easier, if there weren't these rules on how I can answer!"

"Will it really kill you to answer a question without countering with a question?" he asked, sounding almost amused.

"Yes!" she exclaimed.

He raised an eyebrow. "Ok, then you can ask questions." He smirked at her stunned expression. "I'm not allowed to kill you. Not to mention that it would be bad for my own health."

"I can ask questions?" she mumbled and then she grinned. "I can ask questions!"

"Yes, so what was the question you wanted to ask?"

Hermione frowned. "I can't remember."

Draco rolled his eyes. "It was killing you and then you can't even remember three seconds later?"

She shrugged. "I'm sure it was very profound, a once in a lifetime question. You missed out by placing the ban on questions in the first place."

He stared at her. "I'm sure I did…" he mumbled. "Do you always get like this when you're sleep-deprived?"

"Get like what?" She grinned and just caught herself before she clapped her hands. She had never known how much she loved asking questions.

"'Easily excited' comes to mind," he said.

She scowled. "I have something to be excited about!" she said in her own defense. "I am allowed to sit down and ask questions. This should be a national holiday, don't you think?" She giggled.

"Now you're just abusing your right to questions."

"Well, you know what they say – no good deed goes unpunished."

"They say what?"

"Maybe it's Muggles who say it. Somebody's saying it, anyway." She giggled again.

Draco blinked and stared some more. If he didn't know any better, he'd say she was drunk, but she really just was tired as far as he could tell. And she was right. He'd just let her sit down as well as ask questions, which definitely ruled out letting her go to bed too. She'd just have to stay awake and he'd just have to get over the deeply disturbing fact that she was actually giggling.

He stood up. "Try not to make a habit of this because it's… disturbing…"

"What's disturbing?" she asked, still giggling as she leaned back against the bed post.

"Don't be getting too familiar with that!" he growled, scowling at her as she righted herself slightly.

"Stickler!" she said and stuck out her tongue at him.

He gaped. "Have you completely lost your mind?"

"No," she said. "My mind is right here. It's just too tired to care what you're going to do to me. So what'll it be, King Malfoy? Which horribly humiliating and degrading task will you set me today?"

He didn't have a reply. He didn't know. He was torn between wanting to stay friends with Theo and wanting to get his revenge on the girl, who always thought she was better than everyone. Her behaving this oddly didn't help his dilemma in the least, it just added to his general state of confusion.

"Stay!" he said. "You… stay!"

Then he left in search of sane company.


"Right," Blaise said, suppressing a yawn. "I'm going to bed too."

The common room had been slowly clearing out for the past few hours, leaving only Blaise and Draco.

"Already?" Draco asked, not feeling tired in the least. "But it's Friday!"

"It's almost one a.m. already, so technically it's Saturday," Blaise saw it fit to point out, "and I want to sleep for a long, long time."

Draco only grunted. Leave it to Blaise to abandon him.

Blaise rolled his eyes at his moody friend. "Have fun!" he said, before he left.

Then Draco was alone, staring into the fire. He supposed he should go back to his room, but he didn't want to before he figured out what he wanted to do. He obviously couldn't stop what he was doing, and he really didn't condone Theo's preoccupation with the Head Girl – he didn't like where that might be going.

What if Theo and Granger started dating? The thought made Draco sick. Obviously he had to try and stop that… But would Theo really choose Granger over Draco? It seemed impossible that he wouldn't have to make that choice if he was determined to pursue Granger. Perhaps he had already made that choice. Perhaps Draco was deluding himself, thinking that Theo cared about anyone else. After all, he was a Slytherin, and most ambition was rooted in an inherent selfishness. Right now, Theo's only ambition seemed to be to get Granger, and he had never been what one could call a warm friend in the first place.

Draco couldn't allow this relationship to take place. He just couldn't. Granger was everything that did not suit a Slytherin, and he needed to save Theo from that. Even if Theo had decided that he had no need for friends, Draco wanted to be a friend in this respect. He just had to be careful, because being too obvious would certainly make this whole thing backfire. Theo would never expect him to condone a relationship, but he'd probably frown at underhanded sabotage as well.

The real question was, however, how much he would be able to get from this bet now without interference from Theo?

"Such a gloomy face," a soft voice said. "Contemplating your sins, are you?"

Draco sighed. "Not now, Pans—" Her name died on his lips as she stepped forward. Talk about sin. She was definitely not wearing the same clothes he'd seen her in earlier. The skirt she had on was most definitely too short for the dungeons in October, and her top wasn't much better.

"What are you up to?" he asked, having a sneaking suspicion that he already knew.

She smiled and took a few more steps forward. His gaze travelled down her shapely legs to realize that she was wearing heels. No, this was definitely not good.

"Look, Pans," he tried again. "Whatever it is that you think you're doing…"

"I'm staking my claim," she practically purred. "You are mine."

He swallowed nervously. "Nobody ever said I wasn't. There's no need for this."

She straddled his lap, and he fervently wished he knew some way of getting out of this, even as his body reacted to her proximity.

"You gave her the bracelet to wear," she hissed. "I should dump you for that. But I'm not a quitter, and I certainly won't lose to a Mudblood."

Draco closed his eyes as her silky locks caressed his neck. "I already told you it's not like that," he mumbled. "She's just my slave."

Pansy growled and dug her nails painfully into his shoulders. "And what kind of slave might that be?"

Draco's eyes flew open. "Merlin, Pansy! You can't possibly think that I… would want that?"

She didn't reply. Instead she moved her hands up in his hair and held him still for a deep, hungry kiss. His hands went to her waist and he pulled her closer, a soft groan escaping his lips. She was so tempting.

She lifted her head slightly and smirked at him. "No, you don't seem very satisfied."

This hurt. Since when did she have any reason to doubt him? "So that's what this is?" he asked. "Some boyfriend faithfulness test? Well, since I passed, do you mind leaving me alone?"

She merely tutted and ran her lips across his cheek to his ear, where she gently nibbled at him. "My Draco, always quick to take offense," she breathed as she began unbuttoning his shirt and kissing his neck.

Draco's breathing was becoming ragged. "Pansy, please…" he begged, his hands having found their way under her top to caress her midriff of their own accord.

She shushed him and kissed his lips again before abruptly yanking off her top, exposing her bra to his hungry gaze. He moaned.

"Touch me…" she mumbled, rubbing her lower body against him and making him gasp. "Please, Draco…" She repeated the motion.

He hesitantly raised a trembling hand to caress her breast through the bra. She moved again and his eyes rolled back. "You have to stop that," he panted.

"Why?" she asked. "You like it, I can tell."

"It's because I—" He didn't get to finish the sentence, because she cut him off with another kiss and intensified her movements.

He lost all sense of reason and grabbed her hip, urging her on. It felt so good. He moaned loudly and she swallowed his moans with her kisses. He gathered her closer, wanting more.

"Make love to me," she whispered.

He jerked his head back. What was he doing? He couldn't do this, not to Pansy.

"No," she whimpered. "No, don't stop, please, Draco… Don't stop…" She captured his lips again.

He gathered her close, kissing her hungrily and caressing her soft skin and she sighed with contentment. He was wound so tight, he was surprised he could even function. She wriggled on top of him, driving him insane, and he knew that soon something would have to give and he would either take her or come like this.

He couldn't allow either.

He slowly withdrew from her.

"No!" she objected again. "Don't stop."

"We have to," he rasped, cursing himself for not just being able to take what was offered.

"We don't have to," she countered. "Why are you holding out on me?"

He sighed and gently pushed her off him. He really couldn't think very well with her grinding on his lap. "I have to go do a Potions essay for tomorrow," he mumbled, getting up and wincing slightly at the discomfort. She probably had no clue how hard it was for him to stop, how badly he just wanted to lose himself.

"Tomorrow is Saturday!"

"And I need the extra credit!"

It wasn't a lie that he had to do the essay, but they both knew that that wasn't why he was turning her down.

"I thought you'd gotten over that stupid notion," she growled as she angrily righted herself, before stalking off to her dormitories.

"No good deed goes unpunished," he mumbled to himself, staring after her.


Draco let himself into his room with a sigh and turned on the lamp on his desk. Something was amiss. He frowned and turned around, his eyes going wide. He had forgotten about her. Somewhere between contemplating what to do about Hermione and Theo and Pansy's scheme to seduce him, he had forgotten that Hermione was waiting in his room.

And now she was fast asleep.

On his bed.

As he stared, she mumbled in her sleep and moved, hugging his pillow closer.

That's my pillow! Leave it alone!

He stood rooted to the spot for a few seconds, before gathering his wits enough to take a few steps forward in order to wake her up. Falling asleep on his bed, what gall! Couldn't she have moved about a bit or fallen asleep on the floor or something?

The room wasn't terribly large, so it only took a second to reach her, but before he could joggle her awake, a motion caught his eye, as she slowly drew up her legs, rubbing them against each other. Draco found himself staring at those legs. Belonging to the female. On his bed. If ever there was a time that he didn't need a sleeping female on his bed, it was now. It conjured images. Wrong images.

This was absolutely insane, not to mention disgusting.

He looked up and caught his own reflection in the mirror on the other side of the bed. His hair and clothes were mussed, his lips were red and swollen, and his eyes were dark. He even had a few love bites on his neck. There could be no doubt what he'd been up to. He also knew for a rather painful fact that he was still very much suffering the aftereffects of his extracurricular activities.

Maybe it wasn't very wise to supply Granger with such potent – no pun intended – ammunition against him as seeing him in this rather frustrated state would.

He looked down again, wrinkling his nose. He really didn't like the way she was becoming familiar with his bed, though. He deliberately ignored her legs, not wanting to get into why they had fascinated him so just before. She turned a little, so she was lying slightly on the side and his eyes were drawn to where her breasts pressed against the thin fabric of her blouse each time she took one of her deep, even breaths.

He practically jumped back. Curse Pansy for doing a number on him. He scowled in the direction of Granger's face. She'd better not be drooling! Her lips were pink and slightly parted in sleep, and her mass of curls were strewn across the pillow that she wasn't currently hugging.

Oh, grand, he'd be finding her hair for months now.

He turned his back on the offending sight and went to take a look at the essay he had to do for the next day. Nothing cooled one's misplaced ardor like writing about squished animal bits. He sat down and picked up a quill, right as Granger let out a long sigh behind him, sending a shiver through him.

He shot out of his chair. Maybe a nice cold shower first would be nice.

He fled the room.


Tough to beat last week's preview, but maybe if we bring Harry and Ron into the picture...

"What?" he said, obviously trying to look hurt and failing. "You mean, you haven't told your friends yet? You promised me you would!" He held her eyes, his gaze unwavering.

"What's he talking about, Hermione?" Harry asked, clearly confused.

"N-Noth—" Hermione began, but was interrupted.

"None of that now, Hermione," Draco said with an affectionate smile. "Say what I want to hear."

... Also, we'll learn what the bracelet is... Bwahahahaha