Prologue
1999 - Halloween
Stumbling through the Gryffindor common room cheerfully and inebriated was not on Draco Malfoy’s bingo card for the year following the most devastating event the wizarding community has ever seen, yet here he was.
Following the war, students who had sacrificed their final year of school for the war were welcomed to return to Hogwarts to graduate properly as 8th years. As a part of Draco’s probation, he was volun-told to return to Hogwarts, something about ‘appearances’ and ‘turning a new leaf’ or whatever the muggles say. Safe to say, he was dreading it. Upon arrival, though, Hogwarts enacted an inter-community rule that allowed senior students to bunk with their roommate of choice, regardless of the house affiliations. Claimed that it would help improve house prejudices and what not. Draco, of course, chose to bunk with his fellow housemate Theo, inter-community be damned. But this did explain why he was currently stumbling through the Gryffindor common room in search of a certain witch.
He had received a saucy little note earlier in the day from her that he hadn’t intended on acting upon, but that was 5 drinks ago and she did say she would be dressing up as a sexy librarian... and damn him, he did he have a thing for nerds.
Returning to school for his 8th year had proved to be just what Draco had needed. He was not welcomed back as a hero, of course, but people had been more understanding of him than expected, and he wasn’t going to waste his last year sulking. Especially when quite a few witches had made it known they were interested.
Draco smirked, thinking of all the fun he had had this past year. He was definitely not the settle down type, but who was he to say no to these witches who had the idea that they could “change him”. I mean he was just a man after all!
The witch he was currently seeking out was a Hufflepuff and had been a causal fling he had been entertaining. He rounded the corner and started stumbling up the stairs.
“Lu – Lumos”, He drunkenly waived, “Why is the girl’s hallway so damn dark, you would think they would put lamps in or something – Hiccup”
He found her room easily enough and mumbled the enchantment she provided to get in the room. She was passed out in her bed and wearing a thin tank top that must have been for him. He smiled and eagerly started removing his shirt.
“Beccaaaa”, he slurred
“Wake up my little saucy little librarian - I’m here to serve out that detention you wrote about”. He started laughing whilst trying to remove his pants, resulting in him falling over and into her bed.
The girl awoke to pitch blackness and felt the very real and very male body in her bed and immediately started screaming.
“AHH, what the fuck are you doing in my bed? GET OUT, YOU PERVERT!!” She screamed removing her eye mask. She lurched out of bed, grabbing her wand ready to stun the crap out of whoever thought they could just climb into bed with her.
“Becca! It’s me, Draco!” He tried to say, but it was too late. The girl had already fired out a stinging jinx to his nether regions causing him to heel over in pain.
“OWWW, what the fuck Becca!” He cried “If I look down and he’s no longer attached, we are over!”
“I am not Becca! I am her roommate you creep!!”
“I’m dying, this is how I die”
“You are not dying” She rolled her eyes, but she did feel a bit bad. This clearly was just a huge misunderstanding. “I will go get you some ice, you baby. There is, unfortunately, no quick fix for that hex”. She turned on her lamp and started to grab her robe.
“Wait… Granger… is that you?!”
‘Granger’ she thought… no one calls her that. Unless - no it couldn’t be... She turned around slowly, and in the shadow of the light, her fears were, in fact, confirmed.
“MALFOY! - You’re the ‘bad boy’ Becca has been hooking up with?!”
“And you the swotty prefect she has as a roommate” He crooked.
“I am not ‘swotty’, I just care about my grades!”
“Ah, the anthem of swots everywhere, really” He casually slipped in. Finally able to stand up again, he yanked up his pants, which further irritated his member. He was going to puke for sure..
“You are unbelievable, I can’t believe I was actually about to feel sorry for you”
“Granger, ice, I believe you mentioned something about getting me ice”
She looked at him in utter disbelief. If he thought she was going to help him now..
“Please” he added rather annoyingly.
“Fine, stay here, I’ll be right back you prat”
“Oh, and Granger”
“What”
“I can see through your top”
Unbelievable. He was just unbelievable. She grabbed her robe and quickly left the room wordlessly.
He’d be lucky if she did actually come back with ice, Draco thought.
Making himself at home, he extended out on the couch in their sitting room. Terrible neck support, but it would do. Hermione returned five minutes later to find Draco Malfoy close to passing out on her sofa. She slammed the door shut, jolting him too.
“Goodness Granger, have it out for the door as well?”
Scoffing, Hermione dropped the ice pouch unceremoniously on Draco’s private. “Do hope you are comfortable, Malfoy”
Grunting from the weight of the ice pouch, “I would be much more comfortable if you hadn’t cursed the little general”
“The names you have for your private parts are very concerning, and again, I did not curse your dick. I simply hit it with a stinging jinx. It should be fine soon you big child.” Joining Draco on the couch, Hermione took in the scene and started laughing.
“Have you gone nutty on me, Granger?”
“No, no, just laughing at what is my life – I am sitting here with reformed death eater turned play boy of Hogwarts, Draco Malfoy, while he nurses his ‘general’.” Laughing again, “I mean what the hell”.
“I didn’t realize you had a sense of humor, Granger; this color looks good on you.” He smiled.
She blushed, taken by the compliment. Was Drace Malfoy hitting on her? What, indeed, was her life? She looked up to see him hovering a bit closer to her than he was before.
Just then the door to her room flew open to a very drunk Becca.
“Draa “– Hiccup – “cooo, there you are. I’ve been” – hiccup – “looking for youuu”
Hermione stood up from the couch and turned to leave the room but not before Becca started puking in their waste bin.
“She’s all yours, Malfoy”
“Whaa, wait where are you going” Jumping up from the couch to run after Granger, he said “Drink water Bec’s, we’ll talk later”
He quickly caught up with Granger in the dark hallway “Were we having a moment back there, Granger?”
“Hah, yea right, in your dreams Malfoy”
“No, no, I distinctly remember you gazing into my eyes back there, probably daydreaming about what it would be like to be with me. Don’t you fret Granger, I am all too happy to oblige”
Spinning around to look at him -
“You have completely lost your mind! Perhaps you do need to seek medical attention for that jinx because clearly blood flow has been cut off from your brain. I was not gazing into your eyes, and I definitely was not daydreaming about what you are like sexually!”
“Think about my blood flow a lot Granger?” He smirked.
“You are unbelievable – “
“Why thank you”
“I was not finished you self-righteous Prat -
You think you are all that, but did you know you are not even that good looking, and I mostly just feel sorry for you that you feel you have to validate yourself through insatiable – meaningless – ego – sport – sex with insecure girls, like my roommate!” turning to continue down the hallway. God she needed a drink “let me be clear, I would never have sex with someone like you, so you can stop with the useless flirting”.
Draco was stupefied. No one, and I mean no one had ever talked to him like that in his entire life. What was wrong with him, and why did he kind of like it?
Running after her, “Wait, wait, wait, that was kind of amazing”
Stopping, “What was”
“The honesty… that might have been better than sex, without all the.. crying and what not”
“If actually felt pretty amazing” She smirked
“Yeah, no one has ever been that honest with me before. Mostly, they just tell me what I want to hear, or what they think I want to hear.”
“Its called a friend Malfoy, and maybe you should get better ones then”
“Yea… maybe I should”