Love Shack, Baby

    Hermione slowly approached Draco´s crumpled form. He seemed to have genuinely fainted. She also noticed the gray coat he wore was tattered and dirty, and his shoes were scuffed- not the impeccably dressed boy from Hogwarts she remembered.

    Tentatively Hermione knelt down beside Draco. His hair was the same white-blonde color, but unkempt. His face was deathly pale, and he looked like he hadn´t eaten in weeks. He looked much older than eighteen, Hermione thought.

    Her head still ached, and pounded even harder with invading memories of Hogwarts.

    Draco´s long eyelashes fluttered, but he remained still. Hermione shivered. It was amazing how much a person could change in such little time.

    Hermione extended her arm and very slowly reached to brush the hair away from Draco´s face. Her fingertips pricked with anticipation of the first human contact she´d experienced in a month.

    Hermione´s heart beat hard in her chest. She couldn´t explain her excitement, but to the spying neighbor across the hall, the scene looked as if it had been pulled from a fairy tale; the princess reaching to touch the poison spinning wheel.

    The tension was more than the spying neighbor could take.

    "Hey!"

    The voice made Hermione jump. Her reaching hand fell to her side. She looked around for the owner of the shout and caught a glimpse of a pair of large brown eyes in a pale, boyish face before the door across the hall slammed shut.

    But the interruption had been Hermione´s wake-up call, and she was suddenly hit with the realization that Draco Malfoy, school day arch nemesis, was passed out in her doorway.

    Hermione used her wand to magic Draco inside. She watched his limp form levitate to the couch where she set him down as gently as possible.

    Hermione fidgeted with the frayed hem of the boxer shorts she wore. What now? She bit her lip.

    She sat on the edge of the coffee table and wrapped her blanket around her thin shoulders. Staring at Draco brought back memories of Harry.

    Hermione felt her stomach turn. Why had he left her? Without even saying goodbye...

    She pulled the blanket even tighter around her. Draco looked so defenseless as he lay on her couch. Hermione felt a surge of compassion towards the frail blond boy. Her emotions were uncontrollable these days.

    But seriously, Draco had been different those last two years at school. He´d kept to himself, withdrawn from other Slytherins and teachers. Hermione suspected it had to do with the fact that his father was rotting away in a cell in Azkaban. Harry and Ron were just glad to have him off their backs.

    Harry.

    Hermione shivered again and got up to make some coffee. It was almost dawn, close enough. The time had never mattered in her apartment.

    Hermione walked over to her kitchen. Her back was turned to Draco as she cast a spell to grind the coffee beans. As she filled a measuring cup with water she felt a firm hand grip her shoulder and cold metal on her neck.

    Draco had regained consciousness and was holding a knife at her throat.

    "Where´s my wand?" he demanded.

    "You d-dropped it by the door," Hermione replied in a shaky voice. She glanced at her own wand steadily grinding coffee beans a foot away.

    She felt Draco lower the knife and saw him heading for the door. Hermione quickly snatched up her own wand and pointed it at him.

    "Gee, Malfoy," she gloated. "I would have thought you´d be smarter than to fall for that one."

    Draco turned slowly around, looking defeated. The knife dropped from his hand and hit the carpeted floor with a dull thud.

    "I hid your wand," Hermione told him. "Now I want you to sit on the couch like a good boy."

    Draco scowled at her but obediently planted himself down on the couch and crossed his arms over his chest.

    Hermione strode over so that she stood facing him, wand still raised. Draco couldn´t help but notice how thin yet shapely her legs were, sticking out of those hideous boxer shorts. Or how her eyes appeared wide and shining in her otherwise wasted face.

    "You look worse than I do," he said pointedly.

    Hermione plucked at her oversized tee shirt.

    "Yeah, well I guess we´ve both seen better times."

    Draco´s gaze fell to the floor.

    "So Potter ditched you, huh?"

    Hermione didn´t answer. Draco raised his arms and folded them behind his head. He looked at Hermione with a very familiar sneer.

    "Well, love and learn," he said. "Maybe next time you shouldn´t fall for a fame-crazy media whore."

    "I get it," Hermione spat. "You´re trying to make me angry. Are you hoping I´ll curse you, Malfoy? Put you out of your misery, perhaps?"

    She took a step closer to Draco, her wand aimed at his chest. His gray eyes were defiant and unflinching.

    "Listen, Malfoy. I have the upper hand here. I´ll ask all the questions. Understand?"

    Draco shifted in his seat.

    "No wonder Potter left you, Mudblood. You´re a controlling bitch. And probably a closet dominatrix, too- GAH!"

    Not another sound escaped Draco´s mouth- Hermione had just stunned him.

                    **************

    Meanwhile, across the hall, keys jangled as Blaise Zabini opened the door to her apartment.

    She wasn´t surprised to find Cal sitting inches away from the television screen, playing video games.

    "You´re home," Cal announced flatly.

    "Whad´ ya have for dinner?" Blaise asked, opening the fridge.

    Cal answered her without tearing his eyes away from the t.v.

    "Roasted quail with an exquisite garlic butter sauce, a garden fresh salad with radishes cut into little flowers, and an expensive Chardonnay."

    Blaise managed a weak smile and flopped down in an old armchair beside Cal.

    She ran a hand through her sandy blond hair. It was dry and felt like straw. Her green eyes were red with fatigue, and her feet ached from waiting tables all night.

    Cal dropped his game controller and turned to Blaise.

    "Honey on soda crackers."

    "What?" Blaise muttered.

    "Honey on soda crackers," Cal repeated. "That´s what I had for dinner."

    Blaise sighed. Cal was her roommate. Or special friend. Or something. He was eighteen, like her. But unlike her, Cal was a Muggle. He knew all about the wizarding world, however.

    "How could anyone not notice?" was what he said whenever anyone asked how he´d found out.

    And now this boy-thing sat at her feet and stared at Blaise with his huge brown eyes and impish grin.

    "How was work?" he inquired as he started to remove her strappy stiletto heels.

    "Horrible," Blaise told him. "This old boozer pinched my ass every time I passed within ten feet of his table."

    "How´d he do that?" Cal threw her shoes over his shoulder and began to massage her right foot.

    "He had some sort of extendable arm he´d bought at a joke shop," Blaise said irritably.

    "I would have knocked him upside the head and stuck that stupid arm of his down his throat," Cal said quietly.

    Blaise laughed softly. She doubted skinny Cal could fight his way out of a paper bag. But she kept that opinion to herself and said, "Then I would have gotten fired, and you wouldn´t even have your honey and soda crackers."

    Cal ran his hands up her smooth legs.

    "I´m sure I´d find something to eat," he said slyly, trailing his fingertips over the hem of her miniskirt.

    Blaise grinned knowingly. She was exhausted, but it was hard to resist Cal when he got into a playful mood.

    Blaise slid lower on the armchair and pulled her skirt up, revealing a pair of bright blue panties. Cal quickly pulled them off, betraying his great need for her in that moment.

    Cal spread Blaise´s legs and she tilted her hips upwards to give him easier access. She felt herself grow warmer as Cal placed kisses leading up her thigh.

    The first touch of Cal´s hot tongue sent waves of pleasure through Blaise´s body.

    She reached over and stroked Cal´s hair to encourage him. A soft moan escaped her as Cal caressed her inner thighs. He was moving slowly; massaging gently with his tongue then giving her light kisses, but rarely touching her most sensitive spot. He was teasing her.

    She arched her back as she neared climax, and Cal moved in for the kill.

    Blaise felt a burst of warm sensation under Cal´s tongue and the wonderful exhilaration that accompanied it.

    Cal sat back and watched her enjoy her orgasm.

    "I have something to tell you," Cal said, resting his chin on her knee.

    "Mmm, what?" Blaise breathed, leaning back blissfully in the chair and closing her eyes.

    "I saw our next door neighbor today," Cal said proudly. "And she has a male friend. Someone with the strangest white-blond hair and pale, pointy face. I think he may be Albino or something..."

    Blaise´s eyes snapped open.

    "Draco," she whispered to herself, hardly daring to believe it.

    "What else did you see?" she demanded. Cal had his devilish grin on again.

    "For that information," he said, unbuckling his pants. "You´ll have to do something for me."