Draw The Line

The Third Party: Chapter 19

Draco started drinking the moment Dean and Seamus set the bottles down on the table. He had been feeling funny around Harry all week and just wanted to forget about it all for a while. By the time the games began he was feeling blissfully light headed and stumbled over to sit between Pansy and Lavender. Nobody really seemed to want to sit next to Lavender as she seemed to switch spots every Friday, Draco mirrored Hermione - who was on Lavender's left - and gave her a large berth.

Luna and Ginny were back as well and were seated between Seamus and Harry on the other side of the circle. Ginny was already drinking out of a cup Seamus had handed to her and Hermione was sending looks at Dean who was ignoring her.

"Okay, so today we're going to play a different game," Pansy announced. She had seemed to have become the unofficial leader of the parties. "It's a game that the lovely Hermione suggested," Pansy winked and tilted her cup of firewhiskey at Hermione who lightly blushed; Ron looked mildly shocked, "called Paranoia. For those who don't know how to play, it's simple: one person will start the game off by whispering a question to the person to their left. Then, that person has to name a person in the circle as an answer. Then that person would flip a coin, heads, and they have to tell what the question was. Tails, and they don't have to say the question. Rules are that you can't talk about the question ever if the coin lands on tails. That means you can't tell someone else what the question was after the game." Pansy paused for a moment, "So, I'll give an example of how the game would be played now. I'd turn to Draco here and ask him who he thinks is the smartest and he'd say Hermione. Then I'd flip this sickle here," Pansy gave it a flip, "And it's landed on heads so I'd then tell everyone what the question was. Any questions?"

When nobody said anything, Pansy continued, "Okay who's going first then?"

"I'll go," Draco offered a bit too quickly, but he knew what was about to come if he let Pansy ask him, he wanted to put it off as long as he could. He leaned over to Lavender to be able to whisper in her ear. "Who here would you want to snog?"

"Ron," Lavender said without a moment of hesitation and winked at Ron who looked like he wanted to be sick. Hermione scooted closer to Ron. Draco picked up the coin and flipped it, the group watched as Draco caught it from midair and flipped it on his arm, "tails," he announced, passing it to Lavender.

"If you could change your roommate, who would you choose? Besides Ron," Lavender asked Hermione.

"Pansy," Hermione replied confidently. Pansy was a great roommate, Hermione thought and was glad she had roomed with her. She wouldn't change her roommate if she could. Lavender flipped the coin and it landed on heads.

"I asked who she'd have as a roommate if she could change it, besides Ron."

Pansy smiled over at Hermione and she smiled back.

"Who do you think is most likely to marry someone twice their age?" Hermione asked Ron.

"Lavender," Ron responded with a snicker and Hermione went to flip the coin. Lavender watched very intently, overly curious what Ron had said her name to, but the coin landed on tails and Lavender sat back with a sulky sigh.

"Who of the boys do you think is going to get married first?" Ron asked Harry.

Draco looked around the circle for a moment, "You," Harry said and Ron laughed a little. The coin went into the air and landed on heads. "The question was 'who do I think will get married first, out of the boys.'" Hermione smiled up at Ron at this.

"Who do you think is most likely to date an ex's friend?" Harry asked Ginny.

"Oh definitely Parkinson," Ginny laughed and when the coin landed on heads and the question was shared, Pansy looked oddly proud.