He wanted to avoid her for months. Until she forgot his name; forgot his face. Potions was going to be a nightmare. She'd be clingy and she'd have expectations. Her manner was so openly confident that even if he explained oh so carefully that she wasn't pretty like Daphne Greengrass or rich like Pansy Parkinson, she wouldn't understand.

Her friends would know already.

Perhaps the best course of action would be to turn all of this around on her. Accuse her of wanting him before she could convince the school that he'd kissed her.

He hadn't counted on her Hufflepuff tendencies, however. She was waiting on the window-seat in the stairwell to the Owlery for him when he went up to see his owl the next morning. For a moment Draco considered hexing her. Her eyes brightened when she saw him though, and that moment passed. No one else he knew had ever looked happier when he'd walked into a room.

"Malfoy," she said and her voice wasn't quite right. It hitched at the end. She was bracing herself against the window-seat; booted feet pressed tightly against one side of it and her hand white on the stone beside her.

Draco mustered the coldest tone he could command. "Bones."

The severity of his voice made her relax, mouth curling up at the corners. "It was stupid," she said, as though she thought he agreed. Her voice, when she spoke again, came out soft and fast as though she was bargaining with him; or begging him. "It was just…I mean, you're so good with things like fashion and potions and…It doesn't mean anything, does it?"

A gentle wave of affection suffused Draco and he truly didn't know what was wrong with him to make him feel these things around her. "You're making no sense, Hufflepuff."

She cleared her throat, brow furrowed, nose creased and looking cross. "A stupid kiss doesn't mean anything," she said, still as though she was pleading for something. "It doesn't have to mean anything. And I'd…I like hanging out with you."

For a moment he stared at her, trying to figure out exactly what she was saying. But it was obvious. Hufflepuffs were empathetic; she knew that he could never want her and she wanted him to know that she would accept friendship if romance was out of the question.

He scowled at her anyway, because kissing her was still the most humiliating thing he had ever done. "Of course it didn't mean anything, fool."

She smiled then, bright as sunshine and twice as warm. It was pitiful really; that she was so starved for attention that she'd lower herself to accept scraps when actual affection wasn't available. "I'd better go," she said, swinging her legs off the window-seat and jumping lightly to her feet. "Fred and George are testing some sort of trick specs. It's all very hush-hush." There was laughter in her voice as though she didn't think anyone would want to know about trick specs anyway. Draco wanted her to stay, and wondered whether he could persuade her; then hated himself for wanting it.

He stepped stiffly out of her way, making sure there was room enough that she wouldn't have to touch him.

She did anyway, stepping into his personal space to lay her hand gently on his arm, fingers rubbing against the thick material of his robes. She didn't say anything though she looked as though she would have liked to. Finally she shook her head, smiled to herself and headed back out of the Owlery.

Rubbing the spot that Bones had touched, Draco tried to ignore the small warm flare in the pit of his stomach.

It took him too long to realise that Bones' behaviour had never been about what he thought of her. It had always been about what she thought of him. Right now, the only thing that he worried about was how deep Bones' crush on him ran and whether it would make her unpredictable.

Perhaps two days later, she found him again, tucked into the corner of the library now and using the end of his quill to dust powdered ginger from his Potions text.

"Hello."

He didn't notice at first how bright her eyes were, though he should have. They were practically glowing Avada Kedavra green. "Hufflepuff," he drawled, letting his mouth curl into something that was not quite a sneer. She was too big of a liability. She needed to be extracted. He'd decided it soon after she had spoken to him in the Owlery. He couldn't control himself when she was there and things were too messy with her around. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Her mouth quirked up on one side as though she wasn't sure of him, or his manner was making her nervous but she glanced around quickly and slid into the seat beside him when she was sure that no one was watching.

She cleared her throat, moving closer and then stopping abruptly and glancing sideways at him. If she shuffled over one more inch, she would be touching him. If she touched him, he would hex her.

"I'm...Did you want..?" she seemed more flustered than usual and Draco wondered whether he should prepare to ward her off. Slipping one hand into his robe pocket and closing it around the base of his wand, he waited.

She wasn't pretty, still. Her hair was in that severe braid and her eyes might have been a lovely green, but they weren't wide enough. Her face was too round. But Draco sort of liked it all. He wished that his stomach would behave when she was so close, but for some reason, it wouldn't.

"I'm going to Hogsmeade," said Bones resolutely. She was staring at the parchment that was spread out on the table and looked annoyed that she was saying this to Draco. "Did you want to...I mean if you wanted..?"

Draco wasn't surprised that she was asking despite her declaration earlier that friendship was fine. He was, however, appalled at himself for wanting desperately to agree to the outing and deal with the consequences afterwards. "Hufflepuff," he said instead. "We have discussed this. Friendship is all that is on offer here."

Bones stared at him. Finally she laughed. "No," she spluttered before shaking herself. "I'm...I'm sneaking out," she whispered. "Tonight. Did you want to?"

"Oh," said Draco. He studied Bones for some moments, surprised that she would do something like sneak out of Hogwarts at all, let alone to go to Hogsmeade where she could go freely on any Hogsmeade weekend.

"I thought maybe it would be more fun with someone else," she said and shrugged uncertainly. "But if you'd rather not..."

"How were you planning on getting through the wards made to contain students?" asked Draco. It was stupid to even think about it. If he was caught, his father would be livid. If he was caught with Bones he would never live it down. But there was nothing in the world that would stop him from saying yes to this. He wanted it more than he had ever wanted anything.

"Well..." she looked uncertain. "I was going to make it up as we went along."

"Idiot," said Draco without rancour. He stood and went to the shelves, searching for the section on Hogwarts books. It wasn't as comprehensive as he might have liked, but he knew how to use it. On coming back to the table with a few of the tomes, he shoved Bones along on her seat. "Better if you're not seen here," he said coolly. "I'm not entirely sure how I'd explain it to Pansy. I mean, not that she'd consider someone like you competition."

Bones smiled and stood up. "I'll meet you near the Whomping Willow tonight," she said softly before turning on her heel and walking away.

Draco watched her until she was out of sight before opening the book at the top of the pile.

Bones found him later that day, walking into an alcove by him and sitting on the seat to look out at the Hogwarts grounds. "I think it will be better if I go to Hogsmeade alone tonight," she said, not turning to look at him.

Draco frowned. She had probably decided to go with Ernie Macmillan who she couldn't seem to keep her eyes off during breakfast, lunch, dinner and classes. "Do you have a reason for this inexplicable change of mind?" he inquired.

"You're with Pansy," she said, sounding as though this was the last topic that she could wish to discuss.

"That's none of your business, Hufflepuff," said Draco pleasantly.

"It's a statement, not a question," said Bones. "You said in the library today that she wouldn't consider me competition. If you're not with her then she wouldn't consider anyone competition, or it would make no difference to you if she did."

"I'm not going to discuss my personal matters with you," said Draco.

"I'll discuss them with you then," said Bones. "I'm not trying to pry; I'm just going to say that you have two options here."

Draco sighed and waited for her to hit him with the jealous tirade that he was told that girls were so fond of.

"I'm not going to hang out with you until you tell her that you kissed me," she said.

"Excuse me?"

Even under his darkest tone, Bones didn't flinch. "She's your girlfriend," she said. "And if you can't treat her with respect then I want nothing to do with you. You don't have to tell her. I mean it was a spur of the moment, stupidly brief kiss. But if you don't tell her then you have to decide not to see me anymore. You can't just keep spending time with me and not tell her. It's wrong."

"Our ideas of right and wrong seem to differ," said Draco. Then he shrugged. He doubted that the Hufflepuff had enough resolve to follow through with her threat but there was no point in starting an argument over it. "But, if it means that much to you, I'll tell her tonight."

She nodded. Draco had a plan for how to get around the whole issue to Bones' satisfaction that didn't require him to tell Pansy anything, but Bones seemed to think that if he said he'd tell Pansy something then he would. She was so ridiculously easy to deceive that he almost felt cheated.

He was late meeting Bones by the Whomping Willow. Not because anything had held him up, but because he didn't want her getting the idea that she warranted punctuality. Instead of berating him she smiled, climbing to her feet from the grassy slope she'd been sitting on and dusting her robes off.

"Aren't you going to ask me how it went?" asked Draco dryly.

Creasing her nose, she shook her head. "It's none of my business," she said. "You told her; I don't care about the rest."

"You don't care if she dumped me horribly and decided to slander my name up and down the Slytherin common room?"

Bones sighed, turning to walk down the path that would lead to the Forbidden Forest. "You made your choice. She has the right to make hers."

Draco stopped dead and stared at the back of her head until she turned to him with a frown gathering on her brow. He would have expected her to be sympathetic about this sort of a thing. It should have been her chance to make Pansy look bad and make herself look good in comparison. "Don't you feel the least bit sorry for me?"

Bones laughed at him. "For you? Merlin, no. I feel sorry for Pansy."

Draco scowled at her before she could tell him that he'd damaged her opinion of him. "It's all conjecture anyway," he snapped. "You presume too much."

"She didn't dump you," said Bones, not sounding particularly surprised and not sounding at all disappointed.

"Considering that we weren't dating in the first place, it would have been a bit of a challenge for her," said Draco with a sneer. Bones' brow creased in confusion but Draco cut in before she could ask any questions. "What kind of a wizard do you think I am?"

Her mouth curved into a sweet, slow smile that made Draco clench his fist to keep from smiling back. "You're very strange," she said, but her eyes were brighter in the star-light before she turned away from him, heading for the Forbidden Forest once more. Draco felt the tension leave his shoulders. It was ridiculous how much he wanted her to think that he was principled. He'd never cared before what people had thought. Though, no one had ever thought there was a chance that there was any good in him. She seemed to expect it; and he wanted her to be right, though he knew that she wasn't.

"The gates are this way," he called, seeing where she was headed.

Waving the comment away without turning back, Bones kept walking. Draco swore and went after her. She cast him a sidewards smile when he pulled level with her. "With Umbridge around, the main gates aren't really safe," she said. "The twins say that there's a way out if we head through the Forbidden Forest. I wrote instructions." She pulled a crumpled piece of parchment out of her pocket and waved it like a trophy.

Great, he was going to die following instructions from the psychopathic Weasley twins.