Draco's Draught

Need

I entered the common room slowly. No lunch today. I couldn't handle watching him with his adoring fans. Unfortunately, the room wasn't as empty as I would have liked it to be. Pansy was waiting there for me to arrive. As soon as I entered, she jumped to her feet and hurried towards me.

"Draco! Are you okay? Someone really needs to teach that Gryffindor a lesson. He could have seriously hurt you!" She tried to grab my hand, but I quickly pulled away from her.

"What the hell do you want, Pansy?"

She looked hurt and turned away, and I could hear her sniffle. "I just wanted to make sure that you were okay, Draco."

"Please," I snorted. "You couldn't care less what happens to me, so long as you think you've got a possibility of becoming the next Mrs. Malfoy." I grabbed her face and turned it to me. There was honest surprise in her face. "As I told you before, I'm really not interested. And I would be thrilled if you dropped of the face of the earth, Pansy. Now get out of my face, and leave me alone. Or I'll make sure you do." I dropped my hand from her face, though my instincts were screaming at me to push her away and leave. "Got it?"

She took a horrified step back before her mask fell back into place. "Draco Malfoy, if I didn't know better..." she glared up at me, then a smug expression spread across her face. "I can't imagine Lucius is too pleased with this little obsession of yours. Does he know you're still mooning over Potter?" She stepped closer to me again. "Should I tell him?"

I had to clench my fists at my sides to keep them from winding around her scrawny neck. "Don't pretend that you know what my father wants, Pansy."

"I may not know your father's exact feelings on the matter, but I'm still sure he'd be quite interested in the fact that his precious son is hung up on the famous Harry Potter." She grinned at me, and I could feel the blood rush from my face. She'd won this round.

I gathered my strength. Whatever she wanted wouldn't be pretty. Never make a deal with a Slytherin unless you're prepared for the worst. "Fine. What do you want to keep quiet, Panse?"

She beamed and took my arm. "Well, for one thing, we're back together."

"We were never together..."

Her grip tightened, and she glared up at me. "We're back together. Got it?"

I nodded, not meeting her eyes.

"Good. When we're in public, you are to be kind to me, and hold my hand, and I expect at least one kiss a day. In public. And at least once a week where we disappear together. We don't have to do anything, but I'd highly recommend that we at least kiss heavily for a few minutes before we reappear, as otherwise people might catch on..."

I let her continue this way for several minutes before she finally finished her conditions. She didn't care who I was with, as long as she didn't hear about it, or see it. If it got public recognition, she told me, she would have to take immediate action, and if whatever I was getting accused of didn't end once she took action, she would write to my father about my feelings for a certain Gryffindor.

When she had finished, I tried to go up to my dorm, but she pulled on my arm. "Not yet, Draky. I want a kiss. Now. Like you mean it." Then she smiled a truly evil smile. "Kiss me like you'd kiss him."

I pulled away from her. My heart constricted, but I managed to look calm. "Do you really want his leftovers, Pansy?"

"Well, if you don't want to, I guess I could just go write that letter..."

Damn her, anyway. I grabbed her wrist, and pulled her against me. If her grin had been any wider, her head would have split in half. I kissed her hurriedly, but her arms had wound to the back of my neck, and she held my face to hers as she took a long, languorous swipe across my lips. "Open up, Draky," she whispered. "Unless you want me to write that letter..."

I snarled, but opened my lips. She took her time. I was shaking when she let go of me. I swiped at my mouth, desperate to get the flavour of her off my tongue. "Are we done now?" I growled at her.

She smiled sweetly. "For now. But I expect you to escort me to dinner. Oh, and wear that green shirt I got you last year for your birthday." She turned on her heel and left the room.

I avoided afternoon classes. I suppose I could have gone to Arithmancy, but I couldn't be sure I wouldn't run into Pansy in the halls, and I knew what she'd expect. I wasn't quite ready yet. Even dinner would be too soon. Hell, the night before I died would be too soon.

Unfortunately, time has a way of speeding by when you don't want it to pass. Before I knew it, it was dinner time. I dressed in the shirt Pansy had 'requested' and headed down to the common room to wait for her to appear. I sent Crabbe and Goyle ahead so that I wouldn't have to explain why I was escorting Pansy. That would happen soon enough. I shuddered with the knowledge of just how bad this night would get.

Pansy arrived in her favorite robe--mauve with an edging of gold. She always was a show-off. She seized my arm, and led me out of the common room and up the stairs to the hall, preening like a princess the entire way, and babbling about how I had missed so much in Charms today, I'd have to borrow her notes so that we could go over them together. Not that her notes would do me any help, I thought to myself. Her notes were only slightly better than Crabbe or Goyle's, and all they managed to write down was any mention of food.

When we entered the hall, I immediately felt Harry's eyes drawn to us. I couldn't look in his direction, as that would cause Pansy to go straight to my father, so I looked down at her, and laughed, as though what she were saying was the most amusing thing I had ever heard. I led her to our seats, a stretch of bench between Crabbe and Goyle, and endured more brainless chatter from my companion as she went on about Divination, and how Trelawney must be a genius, as she had predicted that we would get back together today. I was barely able to finish my roll, so I spent the rest of the hour she insisted on being there pushing my food around my plate and avoiding the death-glare that came from a certain pair of eyes over at the Gryffindor table.

Finally, Pansy decided she was finished. I stood and helped her to her feet, and she turned to me, draped her arms around my neck, and kissed me wetly on the mouth. "Oh, Draco, you're so sweet," she grinned up at me.

My stomach turned. "We need to get going, Pansy. I have detention tonight."

Pansy frowned. "That's not fair. He started it. Why should Snape give you detention for something that wasn't your fault?"

"Just drop it, Pansy. You know how Snape is when he's trying to teach us a lesson. It'll only make things worse if I argue."

She sighed. "I suppose."

I escorted her back to the common room, where she exacted yet another kiss, then turned and headed for the Potions classroom. Harry was already there when I arrived, so I sat down next to him. He glared at me, then stood up and moved to the next table over. I clenched my hands together under the table to prevent myself from reaching for him as he moved. Snape arrived seconds later.

"Gentlemen," he greeted us. "I am pleased to see that you are taking this seriously. For the next two hours, I want complete silence while you scrub these desks for me. By the time you leave, there is to be no residue of any kind left over. And no magic. I will be in my office down the hall, so be assured that if you fight again, I will hear it." He glanced gloweringly at both of us. "Understood?"

We both nodded. "Yes, sir."

He placed scrub brushes and pails on his desk. "Here is your equipment, gentlemen. You had better hurry. Two hours goes awfully fast." With that he turned and left the room, leaving the door open behind him.

I glanced out of the corner of my eyes at Harry, who had already gotten up to take his brush and pail. He refused to even look in my direction. I stood and gathered my equipment, and walked to where Harry was filling his bucket. Feeling me near him, he jerked away, and splashed a puddle onto the floor. He mopped it up while I filled my bucket, and then we moved to opposite sides of the room, him on the side the Gryffindors tended to sit at, and me at the Slytherin tables.

We scrubbed for an hour before I managed to get up the courage to speak. "Look, Potter, I'm sorry." He grunted, and kept working. I scrubbed some more, then turned to look at him again. "I wasn't trying anything, you know? I just though that you wouldn't want to talk to me, so I wanted to make things as simple as possible. Okay?"

He mumbled something.

"What?"

He still avoided my eyes. "I said, that must be why you made such a scene with Pansy tonight, right? Just trying to spare my feelings?"

My heart pounded in my chest. I hadn't really thought about this. Hadn't really thought he would bring this up. I hadn't wanted to hurt him. But... "That wasn't my choice, Potter."

Finally, he turned to me. He was...crying? "No? It sure as hell looked like it, Draco," he hissed. "You looked like you were having a grand old time."

I was shaking. When the hell had that started? It was almost worse than blushing. "Look, Potter. What does it matter to you what I do with my housemates? I do have to live with them, you know."

He was in front of me then. "It looked like you were doing a hell of a lot more than living with them, Draco."

He was too close. I tried to back up, but the tables were in the way. "What would you know about it, Potter? You don't have to live there. How do you know what they expect of me?" I was getting a bit shrill, but I couldn't stop my voice from rising.

"And just what is it that they expect of you, Draco? Hmm?"

I was shuddering by this time. I wanted to scream. I wanted to hit him. I wanted...

Then he made the decision for me. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards him. And then his mouth was on mine, and the world was gone. No detention, no Snape, no Pansy, not even my father existed anymore. All I wanted was more of him kissing me. And then it was over.

He looked at me, and for a second I saw my Harry. And then he was gone. And in his place was the boy I had called Potter for six years. But this boy was even colder than that. "I bet they don't expect that, do they?" Then he pushed me away, and turned back to his table.

We cleaned in silence after that. There was nothing I could say. Snape returned when our time was up, and closed the door behind us as we left the room. Snape returned to his office, but I could not resist looking at Harry. He stood as still as I, obviously waiting for something, then finally spoke. "Well, so long, Malfoy." Then he turned, and walked off up the hallway to return to Gryffindor.

The trip back to the common room was longer than usual. But luckily, most of the other students, Pansy included, to my great relief, had gone to bed. I entered my dorm quietly, and settled on my bed without getting undressed.

What the hell did I want? Why was I putting up with Pansy, if I wasn't even getting anything out of it? That kiss had been like surfacing for air after being under water for too long. But the way he'd looked at me afterwards... And he'd never called me Malfoy in quite that tone before. Almost as though he didn't care how I responded. And that made me shiver. Even before my transformation, I had always wanted a response from Harry. Maybe I'd always wanted him?

I curled up in a ball on my bed. But even if I wanted him, he'd never take me back. That seemed obvious to me.