Cat & Mouse

Though you could hardly tell from his usual perfected self, Draco took extra care during his morning rituals. Though you would never guess from his appearance, Draco was not a morning person, but getting in well with the house-elves (which meant giving them good orders, which, of course, Draco was good at doing), had its advantages, like a cup of coffee by his bedside in the morning.

After a quick glance in the mirror to make sure everything was perfect, (and why shouldn’t it be?) Draco left to go to the Great Hall for breakfast. It was just his luck, which was good, like everything else of his, that who should be coming down as he was going up, but his new prey.

He caught up to her as she held her hand out to open the massive door. She turned just like he thought when he came up behind her. “Well, if it isn’t the little Weasley…” he said in a low, drawling voice. She tried to take a step back as he moved forward, but was too close to the door, and resorted to flattening her back against the wood. He put a hand on either side of her face and leaned towards her as if to kiss her. “Why so angry?” he whispered, making his warm breath tickle her skin. “I wouldn’t do anything, especially to a pretty little thing like you.”

“Really?” she almost snorted, her need to get away giving into her anger.

“Really…” Right then, just as he was leaning into to actually kiss her this time, to seduce her, she did the very thing he didn’t expect, but should have.

She brought her knee sharply up and yelled “Get bent, Malfoy!” before opening the door promptly in his face.

Draco was faintly aware of two things. There was immense pain in his face and his groin; that he wanted to cower in pain or at least curse, but in no way could this be tolerated. He also heard footsteps coming from the stairway to the dungeons, and light feminine laughter, which a sickening edge to it. He settled for a grimace and turned to face his companion.

“Pansy,” he nodded in recognition as he watched the laughter fade from her lips, but stay in her eyes.

“Well,” she clasped a hand to her chest, “I never thought I’d see you, Draco Malfoy, getting his ass kicked by a Weasley, and a girl nonetheless!” His eyes turned into slits and he grabbed her roughly and pushed his mouth against hers hard. She pushed him playfully, the laughter returning. She grabbed the edge of his robes and led him into the Great Hall, being nice enough to let him grab his collar back.

He settled himself gracefully into his seat while Pansy sat herself opposite him, smirking. Blaise slid into the seat right of Draco with the same smirk as Pansy’s except showing a bit more teeth.

“I hear you’re going for the déclassé now,” he said with a raised eyebrow.

“I wasn’t aware my personal life was any of your business, Blaise,” Draco answered coolly.

“I wasn’t aware Weasley red hair, freckles, and muggle-loving were back in style.”

“When were they ever in style?” They all had a good laugh about it as they started off the morning.

“I do have to wonder, what you, scourge of Gryffindors, are doing going after a Weasley,” Blaise asked in as close to curiosity as was possible.

“Simple,” Pansy stated just as Millicent took a seat by her, opposite Blaise. “Weasley doesn’t care if we’re mean to her, so why not play nice.” Draco could have sworn he saw Millicent shudder at the horrid word. After all, who in their right minds would be nice? Certainly not Draco.

They huddled together over the table, plotting as usual, on some based premise of privacy that had never existed at the Slytherin table. Ensnaring the youngest Weasley was proving to be harder than one would think, even for someone as handsome as Draco.

blue_angel, tortuga23, soda freak, Crystal, and cassie: Thank you so much for your lovely reviews! I really appreciate them! ^_^