Tainted Love

Staring

DRACO

For a brief five minutes immediately after he woke up on Monday morning, Draco forgot about his new partner.

It was a wonderful respite from what he was sure would be a torturous couple of months. According to Granger, Iris was supposed to stay and work at the Ministry for a year, but Draco had no doubt in his mind that she would be gone by Christmas. He had a particular skill for repelling those around him when he wanted to, and he wasn't sure that there had ever been an instance in which he had wanted to more.

He worked better alone - no, he only worked alone. His previous partners had known enough about his history to know better than to try to interact with him, but Iris seemed to be woefully ignorant.

So it was settled - Draco would have to make her quit. And judging by how meek and submissive she had been Friday, he didn't anticipate it being very difficult. She had thrown the odd comeback out, but those were mostly knee-jerk responses that a first-year probably could have come up with. No, for the most part, she had tried to keep her head down.

In fact, it would be fun—something else to do besides brew potions and test their effects.

She was already there when he walked into the Love Chamber, bent over a desk, her hair clumsily pulled back from her face. Good - she had found something to do. Perhaps she would bother him less.

He strode over to the table in the middle of the room where he had been working for the past week. As he walked, he saw Iris startle out of the corner of his eye. For some reason, it sent up a flare of annoyance in him. It seemed juvenile, childish even, to jump in surprise.

He felt her eyes follow him as he walked around his desk, staying on him as he slowly removed the silver rings from his fingers. He ran his thumb over the one with the Malfoy crest on it. He was never sure whether he wanted to wear it or not, but after years of having it on his pointer finger every day, it had become routine.

He looked up suddenly, catching Iris staring at him. She looked down quickly, hands clumsily moving to uncap a vial.

She had watched him all day Friday, listened to him when he was on the phone with Pansy.

As he pulled out his wand and conjured his notes onto the desk in front of him, he couldn't help grinning to himself. He had almost forgotten, but now it seemed all too plain. Iris was painfully aware of his presence, her eyes finding him again and again, flitting quickly between his hands and the rings he had abandoned at the edge of the table as he continued measuring out the properties of the potion.

He never tried to catch her staring again, even though he could have done it at any time he wanted. He would let her think he didn't notice the way she looked at him, how she so obviously fancied him. It was just knowledge, knowledge he planned on using to his full advantage.

He successfully evaded conversation with her for all of Monday morning, but the silence broke early in the afternoon.

He was almost finishing measuring out the proportions of the ingredients in the potion - meticulous work that he had been steadily making his way through since last Wednesday, when Iris dropped something across the room.

It clattered to the ground, breaking Draco's concentration. He didn't startle - unlike Iris, he prided himself on being able to keep his composure in any situation - but his hand jerked slightly, smudging the ink on the end of his parchment.

He looked up to find her crouching on the ground, wand out, using it to mop up a broken vial that had spilled a good portion of potion onto the ground.

"I knew you were a waste," he said smoothly, raising his eyebrows in disgust as she looked up at him from the ground, "but I never thought you would take it so literally."