Yes, it's been a while and it may be a while again before the next one. I'm rather fatigued lately and the baby and such take precedence over ficcing. I actually tried to update yesterday but ffnet wouldn't cooperate. D: And today I have been trying to update for hours, but Kupo pulled a magic trick on me. Want to know what a baby's magic trick is? Here's a hint: It ends in POOP EVERYWHERE!
If you lack fics to read, there's another round of voting going on at Dramione Awards on LJ: Best of 2008. I'll update my profile to hold a link. :) And I'll also update my profile to link to the amazing BRACELET trailer Breenieweenie made ages ago. I had pimped it but apparently not linked it there. Shame on me. Thanks to LoverGurrl411 for letting me know it was missing.
A shout out to my sometime content betas MazVN (my boyfriend), Margot LeFaye, kerri240879 and TomFeltonIsKindaHot. They may not have feedback for every single chapter, but the input they do give me is invaluable. Margot LeFaye, kerri240879 and TomFeltonIsKindaHot also have their own brilliant fics out there. If you frequent GE or affnet, check out kerri and TFIKH's stuff, or look Margot up on insanejournal (margotlefaye) until Coloured Grey is back. You won't regret it.
"I thought you were going to try and talk to Granger."
And here Draco had thought that Blaise didn't even know where the library was.
Monday was never complete in all its miserable glory without a nagging Blaise sticking his nose where it didn't belong. Draco had Blaise's annoying tendencies all figured out, though. This was why Blaise had such an easy time getting most girls—because he understood how they thought and in his own calculating and using way, he was quite sensitive to how they felt.
In other words: Blaise was such a girl.
Draco did wish he had that some of talent, though. Maybe then he could figure out how to get on Hermione's good side.
He also wished there were some way to turn Blaise's perception off. Draco wasn't some bird and he really wish Blaise would stop with the heart-to-hearts already. "I did try," Draco muttered at Blaise, who was still expectantly looking at him.
"Obviously not hard enough."
Having had it, Draco threw down his quill—albeit not violently enough for anyone to truly notice—and sneered. "Damn it, Blaise! If she doesn't want to talk to me or be around me, I can't bloody well make her! She has good reason to feel the way she does, so leave me alone already!"
Blaise looked very unimpressed. "Of course she does. You're an egomaniac with your head up your arse. But she's a stuck-up bitch, so I think you two are practically perfect for each other."
Draco felt a strange urge to laugh even though he wasn't even amused. Blaise honestly didn't seem to get it. "Why do you keep doing this to me? It's not going to happen."
"Well, ok, maybe you won't live happily ever after and make babies and all that, but I thought that maybe you'd settle for less?"
"Less?" Draco echoed.
Blaise shrugged. "Yeah, you know. Get some of that sexual tension out of your system?"
"Sexual tension?" Oh, this was going to be good, wasn't it? At least if you found wanting to reach inside your ear to grab a hold of your brain and squeeze it really tight just so it would bleed out that much faster good.
He wondered if a library book could be used as a lethal weapon. It probably could with enough sheer force. Or maybe Draco could 'accidentally' drop one of those really huge ancient volumes that could only be floated around, on Blaise's head. People would believe him if he called it an accident. Even if they didn't believe him, they'd surely sympathize.
"Did someone put a parroting hex on you?" Blaise frowned irritably. "You have to know about the tension. It's so thick you can cut it with a knife. I think you could get her into bed. That would have to count for something, right?"
"Like you did with Tracey Davis?" Draco hadn't really meant to sound quite that sarcastic.
Blaise's lips thinned as he visibly fought back annoyance. "Tracey and I don't compare to the two of you. I'm just offering to help you find a way into Granger's bed. After that you're on your own."
Oh, the irony! "No, thanks," Draco said. "I appreciate the offer, but... no, thanks."
"'No' is not an option," Blaise said, putting on his stubborn face.
"No, I—" Draco sighed and lowered his voice. "I really don't need your help with that, all right?"
"What do you mean, you 'don't need' it? If you're not doing anything, then unless you already…" Blaise's voice faded and for a few seconds he looked quite comical, gaping like a fish. "You did, didn't you? You already slept with Granger?"
"That's great, Blaise. Really brilliant. Just shout it out, why don't you?" Draco muttered, glancing around to see if anyone had heard. The last thing he needed was for Potter to find an excuse to beat him up. Or try to romance him. Whatever went through that confused mind of his.
Gay jokes about Potter would never get old.
Then he froze. Not two bookcases over, Theo was standing with his back to them, evidently perusing a book. Only, he couldn't not have heard the unsubtle outburst and he was standing very, very still.
Draco tried to imagine being in Theo's shoes right then and felt sick to his stomach. He kicked Blaise, who was still too stunned to even react to the pain. "Now you've done it!" he hissed, nodding towards Theo.
Blaise slowly blinked and then looked up, also paling slightly. "Well, it only matters if you've actually...." His voice trailed off at Draco's look. "I was just surprised," he muttered, looking down.
Draco didn't reply but instead watched Theo, who stood without moving for a few more seconds before slowly and carefully putting the book back on its shelf and stiffly walking away.
"Did you really?" Blaise asked again.
Draco let out an annoyed growl and ran a hand over his face. "Yes, damn it. Would you just stop talking about it?"
"No! This is huge! When did this happen? Why didn't you tell me?" Blaise put on his wounded puppy face, which Draco was sure did wonders with the females.
Fortunately, he was immune.
"Could you lower your voice!" he hissed. "It wasn't that big a deal and it wasn't any of your business!"
Blaise obliged on the lower voice but little else. "We're friends... friends are supposed to tell each other things! Do you have a thing now?"
"No."
"So..." Blaise seemed to be digesting this slowly. "You had a one off and then she dumped you?"
Draco scowled, not liking the way Blaise put it. "We'd have to be together for her to dump me."
Blaise shot Draco a look that clearly told him where to shove his semantics.
"Who says I didn't dump her?" Draco insisted.
Blaise snorted.
"Ok, fine." Draco threw up his hands. Maybe the truth would get rid of Blaise sooner. "She's made it quite clear she's finished with me. So what?"
"Shallow bitch," Blaise muttered.
"Oh, that's rich, coming from you! And would you stop calling her names?"
Blaise did a hand wave. "But now you have another advantage."
Draco rolled his eyes. "Oh, I thought sleeping with her was the ultimate goal?"
"If I said that, I lied. Which is likely, by the way. But now you're her First. The First always has a special status."
Draco winced. He had to get rid of that misconception before Blaise went out of hand, but doing so did feel oddly like over-sharing Hermione's personal business. "I'm not."
That seemed to give Blaise pause. "You're not? Please tell me it's not Theo?"
Draco shook his head. He was happy about that as well. "No."
"Then who?"
"I don't know." It felt embarrassing to admit and that annoyed Draco. She hadn't felt like telling him and that stuff was personal, so who was Blaise to demand to know?
Blaise looked like he didn't understand, which... probably meant he didn't. "You didn't ask?"
Blaise would have a field day if Draco admitted that he'd asked but hadn't gotten an answer. "It doesn't concern me and it certainly doesn't concern you!" he said instead.
"So it could be anyone? Someone she sees every day? Maybe one of her friends?" Blaise truly was single-minded at times.
"Thanks for reminding me of the possibilities."
Blaise still looked perplexed. "Well... at least you had one night."
Draco nodded. "Yeah... at least that."
But even though he didn't want Blaise's scheming, Draco already knew that he just couldn't be satisfied with the way things currently were.
The relief from being absolved of all guilt from that night continued to make Hermione almost dizzy with relief. She'd been so worried and then he'd just… lied about having feelings.
Ok, she didn't really like that he was that kind of liar, but still! Now that she didn't have the burden of worrying about what kind of unresolved emotion might be between Draco and herself after they had had sex, she was now free to... to....
Frankly, she wasn't sure to what exactly.
To not fret about what it meant but just remember how good it had felt?
To very, very secretly lament that it couldn't happen again?
In spite of her disappointment in Draco as a person for telling such lies—she really did need to remember she was dealing with a Slytherin—it was a very heavy burden that had been lifted from her shoulders.
She'd actually thought she'd done a good job of acting normal after finding out, until Harry had pointed out that she seemed to be in a considerably better mood lately. Ron had said she even seemed giddy. Apparently acting wasn't her forte.
But why shouldn't she be giddy? She had been right, after all. There had been a lot of sparks between her and Draco. A lot of... friction. Oh, yes. Definitely friction.
She was a big fan of friction.
Ok, time to stop thinking about the fun side-effects of friction. She was on a mission!
Although, if she weren't so afraid of other complications, she would certainly have explored that friction a little more.
Back to the mission!
She flipped the pages of her book, murmuring to herself. This was no good, no good at all. She could find no less than five recipes that matched what she was going for. Three of them lacked description of color, which was, to be honest, quite shoddy for a potion recipe book, and the other two would be easily sorted if she could just remember how it had smelled.
The smell? All she knew was it had tasted like yuck and she'd brushed her teeth immediately after swallowing it.
Unfortunately, it seemed like they might all taste like yuck.
"Are you my official stalker now?" she asked the darkness, shaking her head.
There was a vague rustle. "Restricted section?" Draco asked as he was coming out of the shadows. "So that's where you spend your nights. You naughty girl!"
"Nothing naughty about it," Hermione replied, not quite knowing whether to scowl, roll her eyes or laugh.
He glanced at her book as he sat down. "Contraceptives? I think that falls into the realm of premeditated naughtiness."
Hermione felt her face heat and protectively moved her book away from his curious eyes. "It's none of your business."
He looked as if he wanted to ask her about it but then shrugged. "You don't want to brew your own anyway."
She raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah? Why not?"
"It should say so in the introduction or something, but a contraceptive potion is only as good as you make it, so the only way to get perfect protection is to brew a perfect potion. It's tricky to do and hard to tell the difference."
"How do you know about this?"
He grinned at her, and she had the strangest... reaction. "Did you not notice the company I keep?" he asked. "If there were ever someone that had to become an expert of contraceptives, it's Blaise. I just happened to be around a lot."
"Right," Hermione muttered. "Then where'd I get it?"
His grin faded until he was just looking thoughtfully at her. "What do you need it for?" He apparently hadn't been able to refrain from asking any longer.
Hermione didn't feel like replying. "Technically, it's none of your business."
"Technically, I don't have to tell you where you can get it."
She narrowed her eyes at him but had to concede he was right. "It's for a friend."
He rolled his eyes and began to rise. "Nice talking to you, Granger."
"No, wait!" She impatiently motioned for him to sit back down. "It really is for a friend!"
"Really?" he asked, looking very skeptical and slowly sitting back down. "What friend?"
"Ginny Weasley."
"And why can Weasley not get her own potions?"
"She can! I—" She blushed again. What a nuisance. "I just... I borrowed some from her and I want to replace it so that people don't... know."
A slow smile spread across his features. "You took one... that night?"
Hermione grimaced both with embarrassment at him bringing that up and the recollection of the foul taste. "Of course I did, you prat. Someone had to be responsible. You weren't exactly thinking with your head."
The smile widened into another one of those grins. "It wasn't necessary, but I appreciate the thought."
"What do you mean it wasn't necessary?"
Now he was the one to grimace. "I can't.... Let's just say my father made sure I'd have no bastards. Like his father did before him and his father before him."
"Oh." Hermione frowned. "Neat. I think. It's not permanent, I gather from that."
His smile looked bitter. "No, it's lifted when I marry. Of course, if I don't marry the right kind of witch, I'll lose the Malfoy inheritance instead."
"Ah," Hermione said with a slow nod. "The 'right' kind being pureblood and from a good family."
"Exactly," he said with another tight smile.
There was a brief strained silence.
"Still," he said, making a flourish with his hand. "Considering that you didn't know about my, ah, inexperience either, it offers other kinds of protections that are pretty good to have. And the pink one... did you get the pink one?"
"No. Mine was clear." She eyed him suspiciously, grateful that they weren't talking about who it was suitable for him to be with anymore. That just cemented her decision to not let anymore friction happen. "What's in the pink one?"
"Didn't think so," he murmured, looking a bit too much like he, too, was remembering her in his bed. "You should try it, though. I hear it's good. It has, um, enhancers."
She stared at him. "An aphrodisiac? You think I need an aphrodisiac?"
"No," he said, his voice a little hoarser. "I think you'd enjoy it."
Hermione's mouth suddenly dried out. "I, um, thanks but... just replenishing these for Ginny." She decided to look down at the book again before she did something stupid like blush or, worse, flirt.
"When did you borrow it, anyway?" he asked, seemingly not noticing how flustered she became. "Did you swing by her dormitory before coming down to me? And... you've taken more than one?"
"I, ah, no. I had gotten them before. She gave me three. You know, just in case. I need to replace two of them."
"When did this happen?" He was looking honestly curious and maybe also a little apprehensive.
She shrugged and studied her nails, avoiding his eyes. "I was seeing Theo at the time."
She didn't have to look at him to know just how that affected him. Her relationship with Theo was a sore spot with him whether he liked to admit it or not. It wasn't terribly odd that it was. Even if he ultimately wasn't in love with her, this whole thing was messed up. Damn all these hormones and entanglements.
"You didn't, though," he muttered. "Tell me you never... I mean, you could if you wanted to, of course, but...."
"I wouldn't sleep with him and then you," she said, feeling rather indignant. "Don't you think things are bad enough as they are? I wouldn't do that."
He looked relieved. "Of course not," he said. "Forget I asked."
He really thought she would sleep with both of them? She certainly hadn't always made the perfect choices, but she'd known that as soon as she went to bed with one of them, the other one would be off-limits. She already felt bad for what she'd done to their friendship; she didn't need to make it worse. Ideally, she would have walked away from both of them, but... friction.
And, frankly, she had hardly set out to ruin anything. It should be up to themselves to decide whether something was worth ruining their friendship over or not. Blaming the third party never made sense.
Of course, coming from the third party, that argument hardly carried any weight.
Draco leaned forwards on his elbows. "This still begs the question, though... Shouldn't you be prepared so you won't have to borrow from your friends next time?"
"I, uh...." Hermione had to look away from him again to gather her thoughts. The way he was looking at her was rather distracting. "There won't be a next time. I think I can manage staying at school another three months without seeking another sexual encounter."
Another slow smile. "Or you could always go for a sterile wizard who is guaranteed not to have picked something nasty up from other witches."
Or that.
Hermione swallowed. Why was she even casually considering this? Did she never learn?
Possibly, it was just the application of the learning that she failed at.
Not good.
Hermione made another face. "I get it," she said. "No way around the shady sex shop. I just don't know how I'll do it without my friends finding out."
Draco shrugged. "I'll do it."
Her eyes widened and she looked almost grateful. "You will?"
He grinned wolfishly. "For a kiss, I will."
He watched her struggle with that, while wondering what had happened to his resolve not to harass her.
