Nott wasn't terribly happy to see Granger and Malfoy on his doorstep. He'd been expecting them of course, but he still didn't like it. The Weasel, however? That was the last straw.

"What have I told you about this place?" Nott hissed at Malfoy.

"It's got great burgers and beer?" Malfoy shot back, his eyes trying for innocent and nearly managing it.

"Not. To. Bring. Wizards. Here." Nott said, punctuating each word with an assault on Malfoy's person. A poke, a slap, a fist. an elbow, and a knee that was headed toward the groin before Malfoy skillfully blocked it.

"Oi! Girlfriend! Rescue!" Malfoy called out.

Hermione looked over curiously, and then eyed him skeptically, "Theo, dear, what did the prat do now?"

The impression was uncannily similar to Narcissa Malfoy, and both of the Slytherins paled. Theo recovered first, "He brought Percy Willoughby to my doorstep! When he knows very well why that's a logical impossibility!"

Percy, meanwhile, hearing his name, had stopped looking at the papers that he'd brought from work, and looked at Theodore Nott with an air of slight confusion, "Why, what's the logical impossibility?"

Hermione and Malfoy said, nearly at once, "He just doesn't think you can keep your trap shut."

"Why?" Percy looked baffled, "Oh, forgive me, you haven't seen me since Hogwarts, have you? My conduct towards my younger brothers was strict, yes - but that was all part of the game we were playing. I wasn't nearly as strict with anyone else, as Granger can back up."

"That's - you really didn't get us in trouble for sneaking out after dark!" Hermione sounded like she'd just realized this, and at that realization, Draco Malfoy muffled a snicker.

"It's not worth my job, this little escapade of yours." Percy Weasley stated, with the churlish uncaringness about feelings that Gryffindors were known to exhibit - except, in his case, it was more a studied ignorance that proclaimed "Feelings Don't Exist."

"So, what's the game?" Percy asked awkwardly.

"All of them, in due time," Malfoy said, "But why don't we go upstairs first?"

Perhaps surprisingly, they all seemed to have a good time with the cardgame, allowing them to focus on it rather than tiresome banter. Hermione howled when she picked up a fifth of the table's winnings, and Malfoy gloated when he captured a sixth of what everyone else had.

By the time they had to leave (it was pushing 3), even Percy and Nott were occasionally laughing at each other's jokes.

"We will be doing this again." Malfoy announced pompously.

"Not on your life!" Nott snapped back.

"No, I think on yours." Hermione said, "Since we'd be imposing and all."

As they spun out the floo, all they heard were slightly drunken curses.

[a/n: sorry this one's so late. leave a review?]