Livid splotches of red painted her girl friend's cheeks. "There is no God," she sighed with resentment. Accepting his card, she leaned back into the cushions of the sofa, frowning, and crossed her arms over her chest in a defensive posture.
Zabini remained silent at her side, smirking in triumph.
Theo went next. His grin was cheery as he read off his name. "Hey, check it, Daph!" He showed her the card he'd pulled. "It's you and me, babe!"
Daphne adjusted the reading glasses on her nose. "So it would seem." She held out a hand for his card. He passed it off to her and sat at her side, too. Hermione looked at the dwindling supply of cards and felt her heart racing, knowing who was next and terrified of her odds. One in three. There was still a one in three chance that she might end up with either Harry or Ron. Oh, please. Oh, please. Oh, please, she prayed to whatever deity might be listening in the great wide cosmos. She may have started all of this with the intent of making Malfoy pay for being an unbelievable arsehole all these years, but now that the reality had come down specifically, that she'd had an opportunity to read the Deeds and Forfeits of her Housemates in advance and knew what kind of depravity would go on during this game - she was regretting such foolhardy revenge planning. The idea of being the partner to Slytherin's Prince was decidedly dismaying.
Malfoy said nothing for several seconds as he flipped the name card. The tiniest twitch of his lips was all she needed to know her doom had been settled, however. She closed her eyes and swallowed the heavy heart-shaped lump in her throat. Ginny's hand on her knee to her left was the only anchor to her world of sanity in that moment.
A presence stood over her, and in graceful surrender, she held her hand out knowing what was expected of her. To her astonishment, Malfoy did not simply pass his Partners card to her. Instead, he bent one knee before her, and caught her hand up in his own. With a chivalrous flourish that shocked her into meeting his gaze head-on, he pressed a kiss to the back of her knuckles. Pools of lively, heated mercury stared directly into her soul.
"It's been our raison d'être from the beginning to cross swords again and again, Granger," he said. "What made you think tonight would be any different?"
Something in the way he'd phrased that…
"Did you cheat?" she challenged, yanking her hand away and rubbing the imprint of his lips against her skin away with disgust, feeling real ire grow in her belly. If he had defrauded the game it would automatically disqualify the both of them – something she was praying for just then, as that meant her team would get a win from it, and she wouldn't have to touch him. The cards would make him answer honestly, too, as the spell upon them would insure his truthfulness now that he'd signed the magical contract and bound his will to the rules.
"No," he told it to her straight, and she felt her heart sink again, "but I tried to. The game wouldn't let me. It prevented my spell. This time" - he held up her name card and passed her his - "it was definitely all Fate, princess." He stood to his full height, which stood only an inch or so shy of Ron and Theo. "Personally, I can't wait to find out all of your secrets, beautiful."
Staring at the card in her hand as he made his way back across the room, Hermione felt hot tears waver before her eyes. She blinked them away, refusing to appear weak. The others had accepted their destinies with some small measure of grace - even Ginny, who had seemed to want to rail about the unfairness of it all at the top of her lungs, but had simply sat back and quietly sulked – so she could do the same. She was a Gryffindor, after all, and that meant she'd take this hit on the chin and get back up.
Harry was next. He blushed when he read the name he chose, a shy expression lighting his features as he glanced over at Tracey Davis. "It seems we're partners tonight," he told her, heat blooming across his face and neck.
Tracey's smile was equally self-conscious. "Oh, well, that's… good," she replied,
accepting his name card, her own face as crimson as Harry's.
"At least someone's happy around here," Ron stated, his disappointment obvious. He flashed Pansy her name card – the last in the stack. "I have a feeling this isn't going to be a good night," he told the woman who was staring at him with irate fury.
"No," Pansy replied, her tone ice cold, "it definitely will not be."
X~~~~~~~~~X
Now that the partners were fixed, the two teams resumed their proper seating across from each other, and Malfoy and Harry tossed a Galleon into the air to see which side would draw the first Interrogationsquestion. The Slytherins won the toss.
As Theo was on the furthest edge of the couch on one side, he reached for a green card to start them off.
Malfoy stopped him by holding up his hand. "Last chance," he offered them all. "Anyone want to chicken out, now's the time."
Eyes moved around the room at record pace, gauging who would might decide to forfeit. A few faces, including her own, Hermione knew, looked fondly towards the room's exit, but no one moved. Hell, no one breathed.
After a wait of a minute, Malfoy nodded.
"Ladies, time to cast the Contraceptive and Disease Charm," he instructed the witches in the room. "No unintended pregnancies tonight. And don't forget to recast the C&DC at the beginning of every action round, too, after the questions are answered. It's not my job to remind you."
Each of the women picked up their wand from the centre table and did as instructed. Madam Pomfrey had been particularly vigilant in assuring that all of the girls in school – from fourth year on up - knew this particular charm by heart.
When that was done, and the pink glows had faded out, and everyone's wands were returned to the table, Theo turned over the first card. "It's one of my own!" he informed them, leering. "Right, so, here we go: If you had to go down on your partner right now in front of the group because of a card, would you secretly like it, feel indifferently or hate it?"
He turned to his left to Pansy, as the rules required, and the game commenced. She snorted, tapping her foot on the floor twice in a gesture of sheer irritation. "Stupid question. Hate it, obviously."
"Feeling's mutual, beeotch," Ron snarled, crossing his arms and striking a pose similar to his sister.
Malfoy buzzed him. "No answering out of turn, Weasley." He pointed to Parkinson. "Pans, take a Deeds. No, not the blue deck. The red one." With an imperious motion with his hand, he commanded the group back on task. "Daphne, you're next."
Greengrass pursed her lips together and let her eyes roam over Theo in contemplation. "I would most likely enjoy it," she decreed after only a slight pause.
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