It’s just a game
“C’mon, Granger, it’s just a game. Harmless…in most situations.” Draco winked with a dimpled grin as he held his hand out towards her. Despite knowing better, she grasped it firmly and allowed him to draw her along into the adjacent room where their friends sat. It wasn’t often that Draco truly smiled. More common was his signature Malfoy smirk, or a waggling of the eyebrows. Dimples? They indicated danger of the most delicious kind.
“Granger! So glad you could join us,” drawled Blaise as he added another glass to the table. He poured two fingers worth of firewhiskey into each before gently pushing them towards their victims. Hermione took a seat between Draco and Pansy on the Chesterfield. Harry leaned against the arm on Pansy’s side while absently drawing circles on her thigh with the tip of his wand. Theo, Luna, and Blaise pulled up chairs across from them.
“Isn’t Ron joining?” Hermione leaned over to look behind the trio at the redhead passed out on the chaise.
“Weasley pre-gamed a little too hard. We’ll get him next time,” sniggered Theo as he shuffled a card deck.
“Ronald will regret it later, Hermione. We don’t stock Sober Ups at home,” Luna followed up in a serene tone as she dismissed them with a wave of her hand.
As Theo divvyed up the cards among them, Hermione surreptitiously leaned back into the sofa in an attempt to peek at her neighbors’ hands. Unfortunately, both Pansy and Draco were no strangers to card games and sat at angles making it impossible to peek without leaning completely into their spaces. She felt a rough nudge against her knee and guiltily smiled at Draco as he knowingly raised a brow.
“Tsk, tsk. Trying to cheat already? Someone’s owed a bit of punishment later tonight.” He kept his voice low just for her ears. Ghosts of silk ties and hot wax flitted through her mind. Hermione audibly gulped and shuffled in her seat while Draco stifled his resulting laugh.
“Some of us are trying to strategize! Less flirting, more focusing!” Hissed Pansy as she knifed them repeatedly with the daggers in her eyes.
“You’d think more flirting would be encouraged, Parkinson. Higher chances of you winning with us distracted.”
“I prefer my conquests fair and unquestionable, Malfoy.”
“Being as Potter is neither fair nor unquestionable, I highly doubt the validity of that.”
The brunette laughed loudly at the statement, shrugging unapologetically when Pansy looked back at him in betrayal.
“We ready? Yes? Alright, first person to begin will be decided by–“
“Whoever last sucked a lolly! Figuratively, of course.” Blaise cut Theo off while pantomiming his intentions.
“Last night.”
“Monday.”
“…this morning.”
One by one, those applicable gave their answers until Hermione was the last to respond. She kept her eyes firmly down on her cards and muttered too quietly for anyone to hear.
“What was that, Hermione?” Somehow Luna being the one to ask her to repeat herself made everything even more mortifying.
“I said…an hour ago.”
Silence.
Theo jolted upward, slamming his hands down on the tabletop. “Exactly where did this indecency occur? We’ve been at the manor almost all day!”
“Like you’re one to protest, Nott–“
“I, um, I stayed behind in the library to admire some of your collections on merpeople and centaurs…”
Giggled erupted from Pansy and Harry while the others expressed a mixture of shock, approval, and in Luna’s case, intrigue.
“Alright, go ahead, Granger. Let’s get the game started.” Those damn dimple were back.