Dramione Awards results are in. Go check it out. I won Best Smut with In The Darkness All Cats Are Grey; Best Heart-Wrenching/Angst with Silencio; Best Kiss with The Bracelet, Chapter 29; and Most Prolific Author.

I was runner-up with In The Darkness All Cats Are Grey to Grey Tuesdays by floorcoaster in Best Short Story; The Bracelet to The Fallout by Sage in Best WIP/Incomplete Tale; and The Bracelet to The Dragon's Bride by Rizzle in Best Snark.

All in all... a very good time to be me. Thanks to everyone who voted, even those of you who didn't vote for me. The more votes, the better Awards.

I have exams right around these days. That's why there's more delays.


Draco carefully schooled his features before turning back to Theo. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Enough is enough, Draco. Just admit it so we can move on."

Draco made sure not to look away, not to flinch. Theo would pick up on it. "What is it you want me to admit?" he asked. "I haven't done anything wrong." Except trying to kiss your girl, but she already set me straight on that one.

"You want Granger. Seeing her with someone else hurt, didn't it?"

"Why did you do it if you thought it would hurt me? That's not very nice, Theo."

"I didn't. She did. I wasn't about to reject her and jeopardize my own chances."

No, Draco wouldn't have, either. He swallowed. "Well, you're wrong."

"You're just going to keep denying it, even if it means lying to my face?"

"Why is this so important to you?" Draco was feeling bewildered. "Are you jealous? Believe me, you have no reason to be. Even if I liked her it wouldn't make a difference. She likes you, no reason for you to doubt that."

"I'm not jealous, and I know she likes me," Theo calmly stated. "But I can't really act on it until you get over her."

Draco stared at the other Slytherin, wondering if he'd gone mental. "What?"

"I wouldn't throw it in your face like that. I can't be seeing her as things are right now."

"Then what?" Draco was confused.

"Acknowledge it, Draco. If you don't, then it will just keep building as it has for weeks now."

"What would acknowledging anything help? If something were there, then leaving it alone would be more likely to make it go away, wouldn't it?"

"No, it wouldn't. Because you'd also fail to fully acknowledge that…" Theo hesitated. "That she doesn't want you, Draco. It's too late for that."

"I know that." Never mind that Theo's words were causing a fresh amount of pain to surface. "And you're still wrong."

"Do you know?" Theo quietly asked. "Or do you still hope that she'll realize that you're not such a bad person? She knows that you aren't. She knows everything you've done for her. She still doesn't want you."

Draco didn't think he'd ever heard such cruel words from Theo before. He couldn't figure out why this person that he used to consider a friend would say such things. He had already conceded the girl, what more did he want? "So that's what you wanted me to understand, is it?" he asked, battling his anger and hurt at Theo's cold demeanor. "That she doesn't want me? Honestly, Theo. Why not just admit that you don't like her going to my room? You don't need to be so bloody nervous, there's nothing going on."

"I know. And there never will be. I'm not trying to hurt you, Draco. If I were, I wouldn't give a damn about how you felt about her. But I can't wait forever; if I begin to lose her interest, I'll have to act. I'd just rather not our friendship suffer anymore than it already has."

"Nothing's been suffering," Draco lied. As of this moment, he actually didn't regard Theo as a friend anymore. Friends didn't kick you when you were down. "Although you lecturing me about my lack of appeal with the girls isn't really what I would consider friendly," he added for good measure.

"You've been avoiding me, and you haven't been very subtle about it," Theo pointed out. "And I'm sure you have plenty of appeal with some girls. Pansy always adored you. But Hermione… you can't expect her to ever want to be with you after the way you've been treating her for years. She might forgive, but forgetting is a whole lot harder."

"When will you get it, Theo?" Draco ground out, tired of hearing Theo go on and on about why Hermione would never want him. He knew she hated him already, damn it. "I don't expect Granger to want anything! I don't want her to want anything! Stop being so bloody paranoid and leave me alone!"


When the door opened, Hermione jumped to her feet. What had taken him so long? Hadn't he claimed he wanted to keep her in his sight? She steeled herself for the insults that he was sure to throw at her. She had lost her head in her quest to provoke him and she knew that his words were probably the least of her worries, but it had been worth it. She would do it again just to show him that he would never be able to control her.

Strangely, Draco seemed calm. He closed the door quietly and just gave her a weary glance before going over to his desk.

"Well?" she prodded.

"Well, nothing. Point taken. Sit down and be quiet… please."

Hermione gaped. "Just like that? You're not going to insult me about my oh-so-loose morals?"

Draco frowned. "Why would I do that?"

"It's not like you ever do anything else."

He looked away. "Yeah, well, it was Theo, wasn't it?"

She didn't understand. "So?"

"So you like him. Why wouldn't you kiss a bloke you like? I just wish you'd wait a few days before repeating it. He won't grow tired of waiting."

"So now you think it would be ok if I had a relationship with Theo?"

"Yeah, why not?" he muttered. "It seems to be what you both want…"

"In spite of how you feel about me?"

At this his head jerked up. "What do you mean?" Please, she can't know.

She sneered lightly. "Oh, come on, Malfoy. You never waste any time in calling me a slut or a bitch."

"I don't think I ever called you a slut," he quietly replied.

"No? Well, you made the insinuation clear enough."

He shrugged. "I'm not narrow-minded enough to mean it."

"Then why do you say it?" she asked. "Why do you throw it in my face every time you're in a bad mood?" She actually looked wounded. He marveled at that.

He thought about what to answer her. He couldn't very well say, 'Because I want you to kiss me and I'm a petty and jealous, pathetic being.' Well, he could, but he didn't want to. "It's just a way to insult you that works, he finally said. "I thought that was pretty obvious. I mean, the thing with Blaise was just Blaise being his usual annoying self, and as for the only two other boys you kissed, I should think that you have at least as much right to sample boyfriend material as anyone else. It's not like you've done anything to be ashamed of. You haven't actually sought out anyone else since you first kissed Theo and figured you liked it. You couldn't exactly help it if I took advantage of you when you were drunk, could you?"

She tilted her head and frowned at him. "That's new. And I suppose I'm not a bitch, either, then?" Her sarcasm was almost palpable. She didn't trust him. He didn't blame her.

He couldn't help but smirk a little, though. "No, you certainly can be. No question about that."

"Ah, now I know you again," she muttered.

"But," he continued, "how else are you supposed to cope around Slytherins – more specifically, around me?"

She just stared at him. "Who are you and what did you do with Malfoy?"

"I'm not sure," he muttered.

"What changed?" she quietly asked.

"Nothing," he replied, fighting a need to squirm at her gaze. "Everything. Me. You didn't notice? It's a damn inconvenience, I can tell you that."

It was her turn to shrug. "I did notice something. Figured you were finally growing up a little. You know, losing some of your need to bully people around all the time. Mostly, you still like bullying me, though..."

"Growing up," he murmured. "Is that what this is?" He suspected it was something far, far worse.

She smiled at him. "You know, a mature Draco Malfoy might not be so bad," she mused. "I mean, he might never fight for equality or even be nice to most people, but he… wouldn't be so bad."

He lost his breath. Pathetic. Damn her for not just staying contrary. He didn't know how to deal with a nice Hermione.

'She doesn't want you, Draco. It's too late for that.'

But why did he want her? She was for the most part annoying and insensitive to his feelings. Not to mention that she hated him and did her best to spite him whenever she could. She was hardly ever nice to him – not that he wanted her to be, because that was even more unbearable than when she was cruel to him. When she was nice, when she treated him as if he mattered, he wanted her so much that he couldn't think. Unfortunately, this also resulted in him forgetting that she loathed him. No, it was better when she was cross with him, then he couldn't forget that she wanted nothing to do with him.

Hope was such a dangerous emotion. Theo was probably right that he should try to get rid of it once and for all. But how could there not be hope? If he hadn't had hope when the situation was hopeless, he probably wouldn't even have made it through last year.

"Don't count your blessings just yet, Granger," he growled, trying to control his stupid reactions. "I'm still Draco Malfoy, I'm still a Slytherin, and I still hold the ring to your bracelet."

"Yes," she acknowledged, "but who says any of those things needs to be bad? You decide who Draco Malfoy is, you decide how you want to use your Slytherin qualities, and you've already used the power of your ring to protect me."

Draco's heart sped up to an impossible speed. Was she saying she believed he could be more than what he had been told to be his entire life?

'It's too late.'

She had responded to him in a way he could never have dreamed the one time she had let him kiss her. Had it really only been the alcohol? Or had she been so caught up in the moment that she'd forgotten all the reasons to hate him? Could he make her forget again? By herself? Or was it truly too late for any of this?

And what if he succeeded? If he managed to somehow seduce her into forgetting that she hated him long enough to stop his craving, what then? Would it end there or would one of them end up wanting more? Would he be ok with whatever the repercussions might be to her or himself as long as he got what he wanted? It could never progress, so wasn't he just being a selfish bastard even thinking about this? Didn't she deserve a chance at something real with Theo?

How did one give up hope?

It was certainly easier to do if she wasn't smiling at him, so he dismissed her rather abruptly. He noticed that she wasn't the least surprised to be dismissed and it made him worry that perhaps she was getting to know him a little too well.


"I hear Theo kissed her."

"I didn't know he was the type to kiss and tell. Shame on him."

Blaise was as usual bothering Draco. Sometimes Draco wondered why he didn't just spend more time in his own room instead of subjecting himself to this. His life would certainly be more peaceful. Then again, it was a nice distraction from thinking about Granger – except when Blaise chose to talk about Granger. Like now. He sighed.

"It was in the hallway. Someone saw. They say you were there and you were looking annoyed. Perhaps even jealous."

"You're turning into Theo with your gossip and sources, you know that?" Draco wasn't about to talk about that incident.

Blaise waved his hand dismissively. "What exactly Granger is doing around here makes for good gossip. Anyway, they say it was a pretty heated kiss. Is that true?"

"I'm sure you already know the answer to that."

"You ought to move a bit faster, then," Blaise said, his expression turning thoughtful.

Draco suppressed a groan. "I don't plan to move at all!"

"Of course you do. You're just so thick-headed that it'll be too late by the time you actually do something.

'She doesn't want you, Draco. It's too late for that.'

He swallowed. "It's already too late. Let it go."

"That's bollocks. Of course it's not too late. What gave you that idea? So she turned you down once – it doesn't mean anything. Girls are strange and what they might hate one second they love the next."

"And you're such an expert on girls," Draco muttered sarcastically.

Unfortunately it took more than sarcasm to fend off Blaise. "I've been around."

"Slut."

Blaise's eyes widened in surprise and humor. "Did you just call me a slut?"

"Yes." Draco was perfectly deadpan. Mostly because he didn't find this subject very amusing.

"Well, ok, maybe I am," Blaise conceded. "Or was. But I actually learned a thing or two."

"Yeah, don't kiss a girl if her boyfriend is in the room." Draco knew that his attempts to stray from the topic were doomed but he had to try nonetheless.

Blaise winced. "That too. But I also learned that you can't take anything a girl says or does at face value. You have to do and say the exact right things at the exact right times in order to win her over. And no two girls are alike. Some require more skill."

"Fascinating."

"You're not working with me here."

"No, I'm really not."

"How many girls have you been with? Two? And did your little summer fling even move past a kiss on the cheek?"

"All none of your business."

"I commend your discretion, but now is not the time if you want to make a plan for how to get Granger's attention."

"That's the part you keep missing," Draco said, finally getting up. "I don't want to make a plan. She belongs with Theo, any idiot can see that!"

"Well, then I must not be an idiot because I don't see it."

"I don't want it, Blaise. I know you're trying to help, but let it go."

"I know the risk of failure is scary," Blaise calmly said. "And there's always the risk. But is that really what scares you, or is it the chance of success that has you running?"

"I don't want the success!"

"Or maybe it just scares you to actually admit that you deserve just as much happiness as everyone else."

"Don't you get it? There would be no happiness. Any kind of campaign to get Granger would just result in someone ending up miserable."

"You afraid to hurt Theo?"

"Fuck Theo. Just leave this be!"

Before Blaise could recover from his surprise from Draco's last statement, Draco had retreated to his room.


"Why does it matter how I act?" she demanded.

"Because I want something from you," he said so softly that she wasn't completely sure that she had heard him right.

"What?" she asked, frowning.

"Would you…" he hesitated and then swallowed. "Would you consider perhaps making a deal with me?"