Eh, regarding the last AN: Believe me when I say that it was only directed at a couple of really rude people. There was never any doubt as to what was meant with their messages. I should just ignore them, but you know how it is. Only like 1% of the readers even voice their opinions and when they do so in a rude flame, one can't help but think "and how many people think like that then?" So, yeah, I know that I should ignore them, but I'm not a robot. And you don't have to like me to like my story (or vice versa).
ANYhoo, wank aside, I'm feeling like killing my cat. Damn nuisance that thing is. And I can't even yell at her without scaring the baby. Maybe I should throw something at her. But then I'd have to go pick it up. Oh, great, now Maz is petting her. THAT will certainly teach her not to be annoying(!) Well, at least he's telling Kupo to feel free to pull her tail...
How are you? Oh, you want to get to the story already and don't care about my cat? Ok, ok, I guess here it is... ;P
CHAPTER HAS BEEN EDITED FOR CLARIFICATION. Sorry, and hope this helps.
Draco woke with a start and blinked. Then he blinked again.
He was alone.
Shaking his head to clear it, he tried to remember what had happened.
Nothing, really. Nothing had happened. Hermione had come to him to look for comfort after she had had some sort of fight with Theo. Being a complete idiot, he had been eager to provide it, biting his tongue hard to avoid telling her that he thought Theo was a moron and that she'd be better off without him.
Because they might as well face it—she was better off with Theo. Everybody would be better off. The prospect of Theo being removed from the equation was… scary to say the least. It was something he'd rather not think too hard about.
When did everything become so messy and complicated?
He raised his hand to rub his tired eyes and immediately noticed it.
The bracelet was gone.
Abruptly sitting up, he saw it there on his bedside table: One bracelet and one ring, clearly mocking him in all their indifferent splendor.
During the course of the day, it became more than apparent that Hermione was avoiding him. It was a little bit amusing. It wasn't as if they were usually interacting a whole lot in classes and such, and he wasn't particularly trying to corner her, but she was less than subtle about preferring to be at the other end of the room. It soon became rather clear to him that she was embarrassed about what had happened. If she wasn't careful, someone else might pick up on those vibes as well.
He wondered what bit embarrassed her more; the snogging the life out of him, the crying while he comforted her, or the falling asleep with him in his bed. His guess was the crying, but he couldn't be completely sure.
It certainly wasn't the part where she broke their agreement and threw his gift back in his face. He doubted she even thought about that twice.
Ok, so, fine, she hadn't exactly thrown anything, but he'd given her that damn bracelet and ring and there was no reason for her to just leave it back in his room. Not unless she wanted to make some sort of statement.
But if he called her on it, it would seem like it mattered. While it did sort of matter, he knew it wouldn't be very wise to let it show, and he would have to approach this carefully.
He was sitting in the Slytherin common room after classes were finally out, musing about these things, when Blaise sauntered in and plopped down on a couch with a great flourish. "Ahh, finally it's the weekend," he sighed.
Draco looked up, feeling vaguely amused at the antics. "So it is. Same as every Friday."
"You lack poetry, you know that?" Blaise complained.
"Stating that it's the weekend is poetry now?"
"Poetry is what you make of it!" Another great flourish.
"It's not as much what you're making of it as much as what you claim it is," Draco felt the need to point out.
"Same difference, innit?" Blaise was looking much too smug.
"You're in a disgustingly good mood. What gives?"
"It's the weekend!"
Draco snorted. The other boy was apparently not going to cooperate. "Right."
"Oh, come on, Draco. You have to take pleasure in the little things. No fun in brooding all the time."
"I don't brood." Draco was slightly offended.
"Sure you do, and I don't blame you, but you can't do it all the time."
"I do not brood. I'm just thinking."
"About what?"
Draco didn't answer.
"If you're thinking about her, you're brooding," Blaise said, sounding smug again. The bugger.
"You're annoying, you know that?" Draco asked, letting his weariness show.
"Yes. But I'm going to indulge in your broodiness. Tell me what you're thinking about."
"No."
"I already know it's about her."
"Then why do you ask?"
Blaise sighed theatrically. "Specifics, mate. I need specifics."
"Why would I give you specifics?"
"So I can sympathize and help you plot." He was sounding impatient, as if Draco was being contrary just to spite him. Which he sort of was, but that was beside the point.
Draco hesitated. He didn't need Blaise to commiserate with him and he shuddered to think what Blaise might 'plot'. Yet, in a strange way, telling someone about some of what happened last night did seem appealing. Even if leaving some things out was probably a good idea.
"She came to see you last night, didn't she?" Blaise asked with a shake of his head. "She claimed she was going to see Theo."
"She went to see Theo first. Then me." There was no reason to deny that part.
"So, what happened?"
"She stayed."
Blaise jerked upright so fast that Draco thought he might have strained something. "No way! You…" He conspicuously looked around, no doubt signaling to anyone with any interest that this conversation would be interesting to listen in on. Very clever. Fortunately, there were only two third years currently playing Wizard Chess at the other end of the room, and they were much too interested in surviving the year to be eavesdropping. "You slept together?"
Draco couldn't help a rather ironic twitch of his lips. "In a manner of speaking, yes."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"We just slept."
Blaise looked genuinely puzzled. "Why would she do that?"
Draco shook his head. That was for another time. "That's not important. The real question is: Why would I even want her to stay like that? I mean, I know why, I just… don't know…" He shook his head again. This was difficult to explain. It was no wonder that Blaise didn't understand.
"What do you mean? Of course you'd want her to stay when you're in love with her. Even if it's just to sleep. Sleeping can be nice. I just don't understand why she would stay."
Draco frowned. "What?"
"I said, I just don't unders—"
"I'm not," Draco interrupted. "Not… that."
Blaise opened his mouth as if to say something and then frowned and shut it again. "No," he muttered. "No, he can't be that dense."
"I'm not dense!" Draco was slightly offended.
"Good. So you weren't denying being in love with her?"
"I'm not!"
Blaise's jaw dropped open. "Merlin, you must be the thickest bloke in our year. Even if Goyle hadn't been held back, I'm fairly sure nobody would have been able to challenge you."
"Oh, ha ha." Draco scowled.
"You're not serious, are you?"
"It's obsession, lust and, yeah, probably infatuation, but nothing more," he replied with all the conviction he had in him.
"You really are serious, then?" Blaise's eyes were wide. It would be comical if it wasn't so annoying.
Draco leaned back, his lips pressing together in an annoyed frown. "You're beginning to repeat yourself."
Blaise shook his head as if having trouble comprehending. "I hate to break it to you, Draco, but everyone knows you're in love with her."
This brought him up short. "What?"
"Well, probably not everyone, but I know it, Theo knows it, and I'm sure both Pansy and Astoria have a pretty good idea as well. Why either one of them still wants to date you is beyond me, to tell you the truth. Granger should know it, but she seems to be as much in denial about your feelings as you are… and maybe her friends know too, I really couldn't say."
"So you're all gosipping about me?"
"We don't need to. It's so damn obvious! I can't believe you haven't realized. In fact, I don't believe it."
Draco swallowed as he was being stared down. So maybe he had known that perhaps it was a little bit more than infatuation. Maybe he was well aware that some of his urges that seemed to aim towards two things—keeping her happy and getting her for himself, and in that order too—were highly uncharacteristic for him and couldn't be explained. "It'll pass," he rasped.
Blaise shrugged rather nonchalantly. "No doubt, given enough time. People fall out of love all the time. But that doesn't change the truth of now."
Draco felt his panic building. "You can't tell anyone," he said with an urgency he knew was rather redundant.
"I don't have to."
"I'm serious," Draco stressed. "Not a word."
This made Blaise give him a scrutinizing look. "What's going on?"
"Nothing," he muttered, looking away.
"What he means to say," a cool voice interjected, "is 'nothing that he'll own up to'."
Draco shot up and whirled around to face Theo, while Blaise merely rolled his eyes. "Why not own the obvious?"
"Indeed," Theo said. "Why not?"
From the slightly smug look on his face, the bastard knew exactly why.
"What about you?" Draco angrily retorted. "You dump her just like that and then spend your time eavesdropping rather than fixing things?"
"Wait." Blaise was sitting up straight. "They broke up? Why didn't you tell me that?"
Theo smiled rather cynically. "Nobody really knows about that yet, Draco. And I noticed how you didn't speak to her today"—oh bother, Draco had known someone would pick up on her embarrassment—"so I can only assume she went by your room last night," Theo continued. "Did you suitably lick her wounds?"
Draco's jaw clenched, his hands fisted, and his eyes narrowed. He did not like the way Theo was talking about Hermione. Even if he was right. "Nothing happened," he tersely replied.
"No, I suppose not. You don't seem to have the guts to go through with anything."
Draco took a deep breath, fighting down his anger. So Theo was baiting him. Who could blame him? He was jealous and he had reason to be. "Nothing happened," he repeated, glad he was a competent liar. "It's you she wants to be with, so why don't you just go and make up with her?"
"Hey, mate, what are you doing?" Blaise asked, visibly confused. "Now is your chance!"
Theo's cynical smile turned cold. "But he doesn't want that, Zabini."
"What?" Blaise was looking from one to the other. "You're not going to go all noble on us, are you?"
"Just shut up, Theo," Draco hissed, having little hope that he would.
"He didn't tell you?" Theo asked Blaise, hardly bothering to feign surprise. "He may have entertained the thought of dating Granger once or twice, but he never meant to even if he got the chance. Not really."
"But that's all changed!" Blaise objected. "Hasn't it?"
"I don't know." Theo's cool voice was jarring to Draco. "Has it changed, then, Draco? Are you going to do something about this or are you just going to continue to lead her on and ruin her other relationships without ever living up to any expectations you might give her?"
Draco glanced at Blaise, whose face was a study in incomprehension. "It doesn't matter," he weakly replied, not understanding why Theo and Blaise would put him on the spot like this. "It's a non-issue. We all know she doesn't want that."
"Really?" Theo asked. "So, there's nothing to indicate any kind of interest from her side? Nothing to suggest she might get hurt?"
Draco opened his mouth to reject it, but then he unconsciously hesitated a moment. Had there been any indication? She had come to his room, after all, and she had initiated intimacies. She had stayed. "Of course not!" he hurriedly said when he realized he'd paused for too long. No, she had just meant to use him.
"You bastard," Blaise said in a very low voice, as the hesitation made him realize the truth. "You piece of scum."
Draco was feeling very much on the spot. "You don't even like her!"
Blaise stood. "But you do! You love her! And this is how you plan on treating her? I thought she was being a stupid stuck-up bitch, but all along she was the smart one! She knew she couldn't trust you!"
"You don't know everything…" Draco began.
"I know enough!"
"You can't seriously be upset about something that will most likely never even happen?"
"Your intentions are enough. What does this say about you? About how much people who care about you, who you care about, can trust you?" Blaise was livid.
"Come on, you know I can't take up with a Mudblood," Draco tried.
"You would still call her a Mudblood?" Blaise shook his head and with a disgusted sneer he turned his back on Draco and walked out.
Draco was beyond confused and very uncomfortable. "Why does he care so much?"
"Because he sees his own fuck-up in you. And because you're being a total git."
Well, Theo had a point there. Draco squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. "How did you know?" he asked. "I didn't tell anyone about this. I thought it was rather irrelevant. Apparently I was wrong."
"You didn't fight nearly hard enough for her, and it wasn't very difficult to look up your family's history," Theo calmly said. "Falling for a Muggleborn witch sure could get expensive for you. I figured you'd choose the money. Especially considering how you've been acting. You've been rather vague for someone who usually goes for what he wants."
Draco didn't like the way Theo was stating these things. As if it was a bad thing that he didn't try to go for his ex. As if it was even contemptible. "There's just no point in starting something if you aren't prepared to go all the way," he said in his own defense, feeling rather weary with the onslaught.
"No, there isn't."
Merlin, would he stop being so curt and cold? "I mean, I know it's only if it gets serious…" Draco struggled to explain.
"Marriage, to be exact." Theo's own face remained impassive while Draco flinched at the words.
"Yeah, but when that's not ever going to be an option—"
"Unless you're willing to give up a sizable trust fund, of course."
"It's just, it's all that You-Know-Who hasn't been able to touch, and it's not just for me!" Draco's frustration was coming through, and he knew it. "When I get it in a few years, my mother will be able to go back to her old lifestyle as well!"
"And keeping your mother filthy rich is all that matters, of course."
Draco scowled. "It's not like it would ever get to that, anyway."
"Which is why it makes perfect sense to avoid it."
"Damn it, Theo, what do you want from me? I'm not going to begin messing around with anyone who isn't eligible! The lines are blurred enough as it is!"
"Well, if your resolve is that steely, then nothing should budge you. Congratulations."
Theo's cold gaze made Draco painfully aware of what had almost happened last night. What would have happened if he hadn't been so sure that Hermione and Theo could still fix things. He knew that he was allowing too much to happen, but she had always made it very clear exactly what she thought of him. When she despised him so much as a person, he wasn't hurting her, was he?
"Yeah…" he muttered as a vague response, looking away from Theo rather awkwardly. "So, aren't you happy knowing this?"
"No," Theo replied. "No. I'm not happy. You saw to that." Then he, too, walked out, leaving Draco to feel rather rotten.
"And who are the two of you to talk, huh?" Hermione asked, fighting to stay in control of her temper. "One of you doesn't give a shit about hurting a girl who clearly loves him and the other one actually fancies a Slytherin girl himself and thinks that no one notices!"
Harry blinked and then looked at Ron. "What?"
Ron's face was crimson going on puce. "Nothing. She's bluffing."
Hermione crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.
Harry glanced at her for just a second, before looking back at Ron. "Who?" His voice was colored by curiosity rather than censure. Go figure.
