Draco's POV:

There was a beat of silence in which I realised what a colossal fucking mistake I'd just made, and then Blaise exploded. Well, no, he was always one to keep a level head, but he spoke in the Blaise equivalent to exploding: a low gravelly tone loaded with gravitas.

"Draco? You had better not be taking the piss. Cause it's not bloody funny." Blaise's body language had transformed, he looked ready for a fight.

In a split second, I studied the outcomes of this situation. Telling him I was joking would result in a major loss of trust and increase in suspicion, which was ultimately a negative outcome. I suppose I could murder him, if not for the fact that he'd bested me in a duel before.

I sighed. Guess my only option was to man-up and own my mistake. I winced. How very...Gryffindor, I thought with distaste.

Squaring my shoulders, I nodded. "You heard me."

Blaise simply stared at me, and the moment seemed to last an eternity as he scrutinised me for insincerity. Finally, he exhaled sharply and chuckled. "You lucky bastard. Bloody stupid reckless idiotic bastard, but lucky nonetheless."

I raised an eyebrow. "Honestly?"

Blaise grinned. "Fuck yeah mate. I know you made it your personal mission to sleep with the entirety of Hogwarts, but damn, that Granger is on a whole other level."

I winced at the mention of my former promiscuity, once again ever so glad no one knew the true reason behind it. That would be disastrous. My reputation would never recover.

Satisfied that I wasn't endangering myself or Slytherin house, Blaise hopped onto my bed and lay on his stomach with a giddy expression and tucked his chin in his hands.

I narrowed my eyes again, certain this shift in character would result in annoyance for me. His smile widened knowingly, as if he knew I was bracing myself for annoyance -and was thrilled by the prospect. "What?" I snarled.

Blaise giggled in a falsetto. "Have you guys, you know," he wiggled his eyebrows with a smirk and looked both ways as if searching for the language police before whispering, "done the do?"

I pulled my hair back from my face and tight against my skull, widening my eyes at the floor as if asking it what the hell was wrong with Blaise. The floor remained impassive, apparently unwilling to divulge the secrets of the mad.

Yet before I could even formulate a witty retort, Blaise gasped sharply and was at my side in an instant, his hands on my shoulders. "Draco!"

I groaned and shrugged his hands off me. "What?"

"That means she chose you over the Weasel! That's delicious, I have to tell everyone!"

I stiffened. "Don't."

He frowned curiously. "But I want to!" he whined.

"It's not as simple as I made it sound. There are delicate things it's best not to share with the school."

He pouted, but perked up when he realised that meant he had leverage over me. "I'll keep it to myself, but I have to know: how did you win Granger over?"

I sighed internally, knowing that I hadn't yet persuaded her to come over to the proverbial dark side (though we did, in fact, have cookies), but I masked my internal response well with a grin and a wink. "I guess she liked what she saw and just couldn't resist."

Blaise's face fell into confusion. "Wait, I thought you hadn't figured out a way to fix your micropenis."

I groaned.

***

The following day's classes were a thorough study into what copious amounts of droning teachers does to the psyche of the common student. In my case, wanting to Expulso my own head off. By time double potions rolled around at the end of the day, I had metaphorical thunderclouds over my head.

I sat down heavily as I reached my assigned cauldron and slung my bookbag over the back of the chair with a sigh. Blaise perched on the edge of my desk, his eyes alight with the distinct shine of mischief. I groaned loudly, ignoring the stares the noise solicited. "Not now Blaise, I'm so not in the mood."

He frowned sympathetically and rubbed my back, though the glint remained in his dark eyes. "What's wrong, my precious Drackey-Poo?"

Unable to formulate a coherent response, I made a series of frustrated sounds mixed with some growling and pulled the skin of my face in opposite directions like silly putty, obviously leaving me with a bizarre expression.

Instead of further mocking from Blaise, I heard a much more perplexing sound that made me furrow my brow. A loud bout of laughter echoed through the room, the tail end of which was a rather unladylike snort. I looked around curiously for the source and found a very embarrassed Hermione covering her tomato-red face.

I grinned instantly, marvelling at her (definitely magical) ability to dispel my awful mood. One glance told me she had spotted my contorted face and had been unable to control her laughter. I found myself with a new resolution tout de suite, to produce as many of those uncontainable bouts of laughter as possible.

Without thinking, I pushed the tip of nose up with a single finger into a pig nose and grinned widely. The same vivacious laughter forced its way out of her mouth, and she turned even redder before shaking her head and taking her seat as Slughorn walked in. I was so overjoyed by my new discovery that her laughter could produce such happiness in me, that I hardly noticed Ron miming vomiting behind Hermione's back.

Slughorn cleared his throat as magical chalk spelt out a recipe for Draught of Purification. "Miss. Éponine, if you could magically reattach your hair please, and if Mr. Zabini will retake his seat, then we shall begin."

Blaise smoothly swung across me and settled in the chair beside me, a grin etched on his face. "Whipped," he singsonged in my ear.

I grit my teeth. "Am not."

He snickered. "Are too."

Feeling increasingly childish, I volleyed back the obligatory retort. "Am not."

He grinned like a shark, as if I'd walked right into his trap. "Wanna bet?" He procured his wand and twirled it deftly between his fingers before pointing at Hermione, who was bent over checking on her cauldron's fire.

For a moment, my worry about whatever Blaise was planning ebbed as I took in the lovely angle she was at and how short her skirt suddenly seemed, unconsciously licking my lips as I recalled the plans we'd made for that evening.

Then Blaise uttered a spell and a gust of wind blew towards her. Hermione's skirt fluttered up, revealing a flicker of black lace and smooth skin before returning to its original position so fast she didn't notice. I gasped, ignoring the way my heart skipped a beat with the little I saw, and gripped the collar of Blaise's robes.

I grit my teeth, putting my face as close as possible to Blaise's without touching him. "What the fuck?."

Blaise remained impassive, an expression of gleeful boredom pasted onto his features. "What, I w-"

"Ahem," called a voice from the front of the classroom. "Boys." I turned my head but refused to let go of Blaise's robes. "What are you doing?" Every eye in the classroom was trained on us.

Blaise grinned easily. "Oh, nothing professor, Draco here was just helping me with something." Slughorn gave him a sceptical look, taking in my snarl and aggressive stance, so Blaise continued nonchalantly. "I didn't know what the word "whipped" meant, so Draco was demonstrating."

"Right, that's it!" I pulled my fist back to strike him, but I found myself unable to move, most likely from a wordless charm cast by Slughorn.

"Mr. Malfoy!" Slughorn cried, clutching his chest. "I will not tolerate violence in my classroom, and you can clearly not be trusted around Mr. Zabini. 10 points from Slytherin and you will have to change seats."

Ginny stood up in a flash. "I'll change seats, professor!"

He narrowed her eyes at her suspiciously. "Are you sure?"

She looked back at her seat partner, Hermione, and winked. "Mhm," she hummed in agreement. "I volunteer as tribute."

Slughorn looked sceptical but gave in as he was eager to get the class back on track. "Very well."

I reluctantly released Blaise and gathered my things, Ginny smirking at me all the while. I shuffled over to Hermione's table with several glares over my shoulder, glad to at least be seated with Hermione, when I turned to find a stone faced Harry, a fuming Ron, and a furiously blushing Hermione. Oh, this is going to be fun.

Hermione's POV:

Potions ended up being an absolute disaster. For one, Draco made it his personal mission to touch me as much as possible. I felt strangely dirty after my kiss with Ron, so I leant into every brush of skin. Draco took this as a cue to go further, sneaking in subtle little touches to my wrists, waist and hips and trying his best to breathe on my neck, all of which made me constantly shiver and lean into him.

This had two effects, to make me a bumbling idiot who ruined our potion, and to make Ron do his best impression of a tomato as Draco got handsier and handsier. He wasn't shy about cursing loudly, which only egged Draco on.

Obviously, I skipped dinner rather than face Ron's griping and just accio'd a small snack I ate on the way to meet Draco.

I arrived long before him, so by the time he walked through the wall, I was so antsy to see him I basically launched myself at him the instant I saw him.

My lips were drawn to his like a magnet and I pushed on his hips so he moved to a place where I could push him against a wall as he had done to me so many times before. I attempted to deepen the kiss instantly, my tongue flicking his closed lips bravely. He pulled away, refusing my request. "Well, hello to you too." He said with a grin. I noted the way his hair was tousled once more, it seemed that he was observing my request that he let down the facade every once in a while. I hummed noncommittally, not trusting my voice, and tried to go back to kissing him, but he stepped away deftly. "Darling?" he queried.

Scanning his face, I noted that the spectrum of emotions he wore in this room had shifted from varying degrees of lust to plain happiness, though that was quickly disappearing in favour of concern. I'd never been this forward with him, the nerves showed.

The dirty feeling that had been clinging to my lips wasn't gone yet, and I resolved then and there that I needed to replace the taste of Ron with the taste of Draco until that feeling of self-loathing finally ebbed. I widened my eyes innocently before answering. "Yes?"

He looked puzzled. "Are you alright? You seem a bit...eager." Draco's hands rested loosely on my hips, making my heart dance, tempting me to just keep my secret kiss to myself and just lose myself in this moment, let us lose ourselves in each other.

I shook my head. "I'm okay. I just need something from you." My heart continued to flutter erratically in my chest, and I made my choice. That kiss didn't matter, not really, and telling Draco would only make him angry. I couldn't bear that, not when everything was so perfect with us while the rest of my life fell apart.

He smiled. "Anything. What do you need?"

I kissed him again, pressing my hips against his and exploring every part of his mouth I could reach. With Draco properly distracted, my hands ventured bravely towards his fly and popped open the button on his trousers. My heart stung when I realised that the taste of Ron remained terrifyingly strong on my lips even as they were pressed to Draco's. I pulled away breathlessly. "You."

An impressive tent already bulging in his pants, Draco's eyes were dark with lust. "You got it." He gripped my wrist, tugging me towards the bedroom.

I followed eagerly, small giggles escaping my mouth. When we got to the oak panelled room, I shoved him roughly onto the bed. He smirked, propping himself up on his elbows. "That's new."

I clambered on top of him and put a leg on either side of his hips, tucking some loose locks behind my ear as I grinned widely. I kissed Draco's nose lightly. "You haven't seen anything yet." I said with a wink, before lowering my lips to his neck and tracing a path of love bites toward his collar bone.

He groaned roughly and arched his back, causing me to shift so that my knee fell between his legs, pressed to his crotch. As I ravished his neck and chest, slowly trailing my mouth lower, my knee moved smoothly, providing a generous amount of friction and it wasn't long before Draco had to pull away. "St-stop," he gasped.

I froze. "What's wrong?"

"No, it's wonderful, but I'd rather not come in these pants, they are new after all." He nodded his head at the previously unnoticed tent in his pants, a smirk on his slightly swollen lips.

I blushed. "Right."

"Don't worry, I can take care of it after you're gone, but you'll have to move your knee if you want to keep kissing."

"N-no." He raised his eyebrows, not knowing what I meant. The taste of Ron's lips returned suddenly and sharply, and I steeled my resolve. "Allow me."

His eyes widened and at my nod, he began lowering his trousers.

Cliffhanger!!
If I get a good few votes and comments ill update really soon!!

Thanks for the read! Bye xxx