Unexpected Relationship

Chapter 6

Disclaimer: : I don't own the characters, J K Rowling does.

You know how I told you earlier I didn't know how Draco got Snape to agree. I do now. Draco promised that he would buy him. But things didn't work out like they had planned. It was a night of surprises.

That day I woke up early to get everything ready for the Auction that night. Fred and George arrived at four to get their shop set up. And at six it started. The Great Hall was full. The turn out was better than Draco and I expected. Dumbledore had said that he would be the auctioneer, and I have to admit that he did a great job. The line up for the participants was organised so the most anticipated were last. Therefore Draco and Snape were last.

"Attention everybody, lets get this started," Dumbledore said, and with that the start of a very surprising evening began.

"Seamus, you're up first," I called. He wasn't even up on the stage before the first bid was yelled. For some reason Seamus is one of the most wanted boys in school. I'm not entirely sure why, must be the accent. (A/N: I love Irish accents). Dumbledore barely had to say anything to 'sell' that slave. Within five minutes, Seamus was sold for fifty-two galleons to a group of fifth year Ravenclaw girls. Draco I looked at each other and smiled. That was a lot better than either of us had suspected.

Poor Lavender, a pimply fifth year boy bought her. She came complaining to me straight after. I told her to think of how the fifty-three galleons were going to help some poor victim of the war. She shut up for a couple of seconds then said, "At least I beat Seamus." That's Lavender for you.

Then came the time I was waiting for, Wilter. Now since I had been writing to Bill every second day since school stated, blaming him for being, well, male, he felt guilty and sent me twenty galleons to go toward my buying her. And it came in handy. I had decided I wouldn't make my bid till the end. I had sixty-four galleons to spend. Amazingly there were a lot of students that wanted to buy her, students that actually liked her. Well to each their own. I remember starting to worry when the bidding got to fifty-five and didn't seem to be waning. I must have started looking worried too because Draco noticed. What he did then was the first surprise of the night.

"Haven't got enough money to buy her Weasley?" I looked at him not knowing whether he was about to insult me, or whether he was just making conversation.

So I answered tentatively, "Not unless the bidding stops soon."

"How much have you got?" Still not sure where this was going, I decided to answer truthfully.

"Sixty-four galleons."

By this time the bid was at sixty-one galleons. I was sure I wasn't going to be able to buy her now. All that planning for nothing.

"Put in a bid now for seventy-five," Draco whispered to me.

"But I don't ..."

"I'll put in the rest. I don't think I could put up with your sulking the rest of the night if you don't get the chance to put all those plans you've been coming up with to good use."

"How did you know about my plans?"

"If you don't want people to read your notes you should hide your notebook."

"What were you doing reading my ..."

"Just put the bid in." So I did.

"Seventy-five galleons."

"Going once, going twice, sold to Miss Weasley," Dumbledore announced. He looked to me then and winked. The look on Wilter's face when she heard that was almost worth the seventy-five by itself. I was so happy that when I felt I a hand on my arm I turned around and hugged that person. Guess who it was, go on, guess. That's right, it was Draco. And get this, he hugged me back, granted it was only for a couple of seconds, but he did. Then he pulled away, handed me the eleven galleons and walked off, saying nothing.

I was thinking of following him when Dumbledore called Hermione to the stage. This though, I had to watch. Ron was determined to not let Justin buy her, so he had saved up some money, but like me he hadn't expected the prices to be so high. So when the bidding started, it quickly became a contest between Ron and Justin. The bids went higher and higher, higher than how much I knew Ron had. Then Justin decided to end it.

"One hundred galleons."

I saw Ron look at Harry, but Harry shook his head. They didn't have enough money. So Justin now has Hermione as a slave. Ron was not at all happy. Especially when Justin went up and gave Hermione a hug. Ron has been sulking ever since.

Justin was up next, but that bid was tame. He was sold to Lavender who has a slight crush on the boy, for forty-three galleons.

Next up was McGonagall, deputy headmistress; well you can imagine the response from the student body for her. But in the end, for a huge one hundred and twenty-two galleons, Harry, Ron and Seamus bought her. Since they hadn't spent their money on Hermione, they had to buy someone. I cringe to think of what they'll make her do.

Now it was brother number one, Ron, to get up on stage. Once again I was surprised at what the girls in this school think of as attractive, because if the frenzied bidding on Ron was any indication, he's a heartthrob. Would you believe it, Ron made us one hundred and five galleons. Ron. Oh well, the girl that bought him, Brenda, a sixth year from Hufflepuff, decided to fawn over him for the rest of the night. Our Hermione was not happy. I heard her mutter under her breath something like 'if she doesn't keep her hands off him, I'm gonna hex her into next week'. She's a bit possessive our Hermione.

Parvati was sold to some lower class men from Slytherin that I don't know, for fifty-two galleons. To a certain extent I pity the girl, she'll have to listen to Lavender boast about getting more money then her, even if it was just a galleon.

Brother number two, Charlie was up now. But I already knew who was going to get him. Padma and Parvati were planning to buy him. Padma really likes him, and I think he likes her too, but he won't do or say anything until she finishes school. Eighty-one galleons later the twins walked away with a slave.

Brother number three, Harry, the-boy-who-lived, walked up on stage with a look of trepidation on his face. Get this, the bidding started at sixty galleons. Started at. Ended at an even two hundred. Bought by Tallah. You know the girl Harry likes. It looks like I was right in the assumption the she likes him too. Or it could be a Slytherin thing, you know getting Potter to do their dirty work. We'll have to wait and see.

The only thing about the auction I was not looking forward to, my turn was next. And here was another surprise for the evening. I really wasn't expecting to make much money. I was up there only because I was a prefect and because I organised it. I figured one of my brothers would buy me. Boy was I wrong. People actually bid on me, a lot of people, a lot of males. The bidding got up to ninety galleons when it happened.

"One hundred and twenty galleons." I looked around trying to find who put that bid in, but I couldn't find him.

"Going once, going twice, sold to Draco Malfoy."

Draco Malfoy bought me. I still don't believe it. Why would he buy me? I met his eyes then and a shiver ran down my back, then he looked away. Well that should make things interesting. Ron's reaction to my new 'master' is like you'd expect. Fury. But there was nothing he could do. I was 'bought and paid for'. But as I don't really want to think about what Draco's going to make me do I'll move onto his turn.

Draco Malfoy, bad boy, king of Slytherin, at your beck and call for a day, now who could resist that. Listening to the bidding, not a lot. I think at that juncture Harry and Ron were regretting spending all their money on McGonagall. At one hundred and ninety-five galleons the bidding stopped. When I heard who made the last bid I had to laugh. After spending a fair amount of time with him over the last three weeks, I had listened to him complain about his new 'master'. He sent me a glare when he heard me laugh, but I just kept laughing. Pansy Parkinson just bought one Draco Malfoy. You see Pansy has plans to become the next Mrs. Malfoy but Draco can't stand her, she won't leave him alone, she follows him everywhere, just like a little puppy dog. So that should be fun to watch.

Last but not least, Snape. Listening to the students over the last couple of weeks has told me that there were a lot of groups that were vying for this prize. I called him up to the stage and he shot me a glare, and then very reluctantly stomped up to the stage. When he got up there he put on his scariest scowl, as if that was going to deter the students. The bidding began, climbing rapidly. At this time I decided to go and talk to Draco to see how much we've made so far.

"Malfoy, have you counted up how much we've made so far?" I call him Malfoy to his face, Draco in my mind. Don't know why, it just is.

"Not yet." He looks around distracted.

"Gee Draco, I wonder what Parkinson's gonna make you do." I don't like when people don't give me their full attention when I'm talking to them so I thought I'd make him pay attention. It worked.

"I think you'd be better off wondering what I'm going to make you do."

"Rather not, I know it's going to be horrible. So thanks for lending me that money I'll pay you back." At least I had his attention. Why is it I continually have to thank him?

"Whatever Weasley, it's not like I'll miss it."

Then something bizarre happened to me. I don't understand why I did it, but I can't take it back.

"Well thanks anyway. I couldn't have bought her without you." Then I reached up and kissed him on the cheek. I could have understood me doing it if it was a friend or family, but Draco? As I started to pull away he grabbed my waist and looked into my eyes. We stayed like that for I don't know how long, could have been a couple of seconds or a couple of minutes. Then I heard it.

"Sold to Neville Longbottom." I smiled at Draco.

"Looks like Neville just bought Snape," I said. That seemed to snap him out of it.

"Oh shit." He let me go and turned to watch.

"What's wrong?"

"Snape's gonna kill me."

"Why?"

"The only way I could convince him to do this was by promising that I would buy him."

"And now Neville's bought him, hmm," I said, trying hard not to laugh but not succeeding, "You are in so much trouble."

"Thank you very much. Shit, he's heading this way. I'm leaving. I'll meet you in the morning to count everything up." He then runs from the hall. I thought nothing could scare Draco Malfoy but obviously I was wrong. A very angry Severus Snape scares him.

Neville paid two hundred and fifty galleons for Snape. I asked him why he bought him since he scares him so much. He answered that he figures that Snape can't treat him worse than he already does. I'm personally not too sure of that but I didn't say that to him.

The next morning Draco and I met to count the takings. We made one thousand four hundred and forty eight galleons from the slave trade and an additional one thousand two hundred galleons from Fred and George's store. The night was a total success. While we were counting we didn't mention what happened between us the night before, but I've been thinking about it, and about him.

TBC