Theo nearly dropped the green card in his hand. "S-seriously?" he asked, his jaw practically hitting the floor.
Daphne re-adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose and nodded. "Yes, I enjoy dominating a man," she admitted, reaching for a Deeds card now that she'd answered the question. "It arouses me to bring him to the heights of erotic pleasure, only to watch him unravel under my touch."
Almost every person in the room performed a face-vault at her proclamation. "Holy gobstones," Ron breathed out hard. "Why couldn't I have gotten you?"
"Next!" Malfoy required.
Blaise stared across the room at his partner and narrowed his eyes. "Oh, I'd loveto make her squirm under my tongue. Then she'd have to live with the fact that a Slytherin made her come harder than she ever had before."
Ginny stared hard at him through narrowed eyes, and turned her nose up at him with disdain, refusing to be cowed by Zabini's venomous glare. "Dream on," she grit. "You'd be lucky to get me wet."
Blaise reached for a red card. "I hope this reward lets me prove you wrong, little lioness," he snarled, putting it face-down on his knee. No one was allowed to read their Deeds or Forfeits until everyone had answered, per the rules. Ron growled, and Harry had to nudge him to remind the man to tamp down on his natural urges to play the overprotective brother tonight.
Tracey, who was next in line, looked over at Harry, flushed and lowered her eyelashes. "Um… well, I'd… Do I have to answer?"
Malfoy shrugged. "If you want. If not, you'll have to take a Forfeits card, though."
The witch considered that for a moment, turning bright pink as she mulled over the risks. Finally, she seemed to come to a decision, her back straightening, her eyes lifting to her partner's with uncertainty, but a sincere resolve. "I'd... I'd..." She seemed to lose her bravado quite suddenly, her voice ending in a soft whisper, "really like it, I think."
From the corner of her eye, Hermione spied Harry turn an interesting shade of red and adjust the collar of his shirt, as if needing to loosen it. For a second, she wondered if her best male friend had ever had a woman do that to him, as she knew Ginny hadn't.
And now it was Malfoy's turn.
Hermione tried - really, honestly tried - not to look at him when he answered this one, knowing he was going to scoff and laugh at the ludicrousness of this question in regards to touching her 'dirty' self. The answer was so painfully obvious, in fact, that her ego took the pounding with only a small pang. She wasn't vain, per se, but she was a woman who liked to be told she was desirable on occasion. That Malfoy thought her beneath him…
"Like it," he said, staring her in the eye when she glanced up in surprise again. "Very, very much," he finished, his patented naughty smirk sliding up the side of his cheek. She blinked twice. "But-"
"Next," he cut her off, turning to Seamus, who sat directly across from him on the Gryffindor side. "Your turn."
Her partner reached for a Deeds card with casual indifference, not looking at her again.
Hermione's heart was thudding in her chest so hard she almost passed out. Had Malfoy just said he'd like to eat her out? Really?
"It's one of me favourite things ta do," her Irish-lilting friend admitted to his partner with a lopsided grin. "So, of course, I'd love it!"
Lavender, who sat directly next to Finnigan, gaped at him as he reached forward and grabbed for a red card. "And that's why? Not because it's me, but because you like doing it?" she scathingly asked. "No debate," Draco reminded her. "The card doesn't say we discuss the answers, merely that we answer them."
Lavender turned a cross look on him. "How he answers will determine my answer," she stated, quite put out. She turned back to Sea. "Well?"
Reaching out a hand, he gently chucked her under the jaw. "For both reasons, sweet angel," he explained with a foolhardy grin. "I've been wantin' ta do it ta ya fer years, but ya kept turnin' me down."
Cutting her eyes to the floor again, Lavender's blush returned. "Oh, well… My
turn to answer, right? Well-" She swallowed, paused, seemed to struggle with herself. "I-I'd… bloody hell, I can't lie! It won't let me!" Malfoy chuckled. "No, you can't lie. But again, you can choose a Forfeit card if you want in lieu of answering."
With a resigned sigh, she reached for the card stack. "He answered it so I will. I'd like it," she grumbled and grabbed a Deeds card. "Happy?"
"Very," Seamus purred, moving closer to her.
Lavender slapped his hand away as it landed on her knee. "That doesn't mean you can grope me."
"Not yet, anyway," Ron commented at her side, and shrugged those massive shoulders of his. "Well, my answer's obvious: like it."
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, everyone froze in utter surprise – including Ron. He looked like he was about to suffer from apoplexy right there, his face ghosting white and his mouth gaping open.
"I meant… I'd loveit."
He blinked again, anger fast replacing his confusion, and began swearing.
Across the aisle, Pansy barked a vitriolic laugh. "I'll just bet you would, you pervert," she sniffed in dry amusement, smoothing the front of her dress.
"No commentary," Harry chastised in the manner of Malfoy, throwing the Slytherin team leader a "right back at you" look.
"FUCK!" Ron shouted, reaching for a Deeds card. "This game so totally sucks!"
And then it was Hermione's turn, and her heart started pounding again. How did she feel about the idea of touching Malfoy? Well, naturally, she loathed him, so… "Hate it, because I know he'd use it against me afterwards to hurt me in some cruel way," she spoke before she even had time to think up a proper response, blinking in surprise that it just popped out of her mouth.
Appalled, she put a hand up over her mouth, her eyes jerking to her partner's face. Slytherin's Prince stared back at her with a cool blankness that didn't seem natural to any form of mammalian species. He was so like a snake in that moment – so blank that she couldn't read him – that Hermione felt very much like the mouse before a hypnotizing cobra.
Everyone in the room had stilled again, glancing between her and Draco, as if they suspected violence to erupt at any moment. Thirty seconds ticked by, then a minute, and still no one moved. Finally, Hermione's hand fell to her lap and she reached for a red card, taking her eyes from her greatest rival's with severe anxiety fluttering through her chest.
It was Ginny's turn. She stared across the aisle at Blaise with an animosity that was unrivalled between any of the partners. "Hate it," she confessed, "because just like 'Mione, I could never like touching someone who wanted to hurt me."
Blaise's eyebrows twitched, but aside from that, he didn't say a word. Ginny grabbed a Deeds card from the stack, her wary gaze never leaving her partner's own black stare. Hermione reached out a hand and entwined her fingers with her best friend's in a show of supportive strength.
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