"She's not with anyone."

Draco looked up from his Potions homework, frowning a little in annoyance at being interrupted. Blaise Zabini gave him an annoyed look back. "Susan Bones," he said. "No dates, no boyfriend, no potential boyfriend, no girlfriend, no potential girlfriend. No crushes as far as I can tell. Where are you getting your information from?"

Draco narrowed his eyes. "From her," he said.

Zabini sniggered. "She's lying to you, Malfoy. And you believed her."

Throwing his quill down and probably leaving a blotted mess on his parchment, Draco turned around to face Blaise completely. "Why would she be lying to me?" His tone must have dropped into that frostbite sharp it sometimes got because Blaise backed up a step.

"Don't know; poor attempt at making you jealous maybe. But she has nothing on the side, nothing in the works. Longbottom is the only one who has a thing for her but she doesn't reciprocate."

Still frowning, Draco ran through their conversation of the previous day quickly. She hadn't given details, had only said that she wasn't available. Possibly that meant something other than a boyfriend but Draco had no idea what, and she must have known it would give him the wrong impression. Even if the words were truthful, deliberately leaving someone with the wrong impression was dishonest. So the Hufflepuff had lied to him; and he had fallen for it.

The bed creaked as Zabini sat on the corner of it. "If it turns out that she has lied for a more ominous reason than having gone giddy over your supposed good looks I imagine that you will tell me." His voice was flat, but his eyes were hard and watchful.

"She's a Hufflepuff," said Draco derisively. "How ominous can the reason be?"

Zabini shifted, looking unexpectedly uncomfortable. "It took eight Death Eaters to bring down her uncle and his wife, and that was with them being taken by surprise and trying to protect their kids. Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange wanted to take her aunt down during the last war, but the Dark Lord wouldn't let them. He thought that Amelia Bones was too strong. He wanted to take her family down around her and take her when she was struggling with the grief of it. Susan doesn't look like much, but she has their blood. So if she's lying to you for a reason, I want to know it."

Draco nodded slowly. Zabini had always kept a closer track of the previous war and the enemies of the Dark Lord because he was terrified that his mother would fall to one of them. Draco tried to ignore it all because he was just as scared that his family would fall to it. Now that it was looming ever closer, Draco thought that possibly he needed to start taking notice. He didn't think that he could ever be paranoid enough to watch his classmates as potential enemies though. Potter was possibly the Dark Lord's greatest threat, but damn it all, war should stay off school grounds. In Draco's mind it did.

He didn't see Bones again until he nearly ran into her in the front entrance after an impromptu game of Quidditch. His team had won and he was feeling a little smug but mostly elated so he didn't even swear at her when she stepped into his path. Then he saw that it was Bones and stopped.

"Well, if it isn't the elusive Susan Bones."

She glanced up absent-mindedly, as though she had only just noticed that she was in someone's way. There was a smattering of green ink on her chin; the same colour as her eyes. Her hands were still potion-stained and she had a cut across her lower lip. Draco didn't know why he was even talking to her.

She smiled, eyes scanning him quickly. Evidently taking in the Quidditch robes, she asked, "Good game?"

Holding up a loosely closed hand, Draco showed her a flash of the Snitch. "What do you think?"

Her smile widened before it must have pulled at the cut on her lip and she winced. Running her tongue across the scratch, as though to remind herself it was there, she said, "In Hufflepuff winning a game doesn't necessarily make it a good game."

"Considering how little Hufflepuff win, probably a good call." He realised only after she laughed that he had been joking this time. It was painfully awkward and frankly ridiculous. She had lied to him; he was meant to crush her cruelly. "So," he said, tone flattening, and watching her more closely to gauge her response. "You're evidently not busy, and I could do with the walk. Come to Hogsmead with me."

"Uh…" Bones looked towards the stairs. "I'm not…"

Draco raised an eyebrow.

"Available," said Bones. She wasn't a very good liar, now that Draco was watching for it. She couldn't quite seem to meet his gaze and her cheeks flushed a blotchy pink.

"Ah, yes," said Draco, testing her in case she wasn't lying after all. He wasn't used to giving the benefit of the doubt and didn't know why he wanted to so badly now. "The mysterious boyfriend."

Her colour deepened, but she nodded.

Draco crushed down the impulse to scowl and call her a liar and any other horrible name he could think of. "I honestly don't care to hear the details of your romantic life," he said somewhat coldly, because he was unused to people lying to get out of spending time with him. Everyone he had ever wanted to spend time with had been grateful for the opportunity; except that damned Potter, but he didn't think about that. "And it wasn't a request." He motioned her towards the door with an imperious wave of his hand and was surprised when she didn't fall into line.

"I really can't go," she said, not sounding apologetic, but sounding very sure.

Draco narrowed his eyes at her. "It really wasn't a request," he said coolly.

She bit down on her lower lip, nose creasing uncertainly, but still made no move towards the door that would lead to Hogsmead; still looked like she had no intention of doing so.

Draco smiled pleasantly. "Ten points from Hufflepuff," he drawled.

Bones turned to watch the ten topaz stones empty out of the Hufflepuff hourglass. When she turned back, Draco asked casually, "Ready to go yet?"

After a moment, she shook her head.

Shrugging, Draco said, "Fifty points from Hufflepuff."

She leant against the hourglass and watched the stones filter out. She stayed right there until every point had been deducted. Only then did she turn and raise her eyebrows at Draco, as if to ask, 'is that all you've got?'

She could have left at any time while he was deducting points. He could still have deducted them, but it would have been a bit pointless without her there. It was only then that he realised that, Hufflepuff or not, there was a streak of her that was pure steel. She wasn't forceful; but she had none-the-less made it entirely clear that she would not be intimidated. And she was right, that was all he had; but he couldn't stand to lose so he fell back on bluffing. With Bones he had only one bluff, and if Potter had decided to get any more conversational than usual even that wouldn't work. But he put his gold on Potter being his usual brooding self, took a breath and said, "So, nice work trying to protect Ernie MacMillan, Hannah Abbott and Zacharias Smith from Umbridge the other night. Too bad I saw them."

She gave in with good grace and a smile. "Hogsmead?" she asked easily.

Draco was not a gracious winner so he smirked. "If you insist."