Tango * dramione

Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Triangle

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"If you love two people at the same time, Choose the second, Because if you really loved the first one You wouldn't have fallen for the second." ~Johnny Depp

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Stage Right: A VERY hungover Draco Malfoy

Setting: Malfoy Manor

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The moment Draco walked through the floo the next morning, he found his mother sitting in an armchair, waiting for him. In her hands was a rolled up copy of the Daily Prophet, obviously read and re-curled.

"Where have you been?" she asked, crisp and divisive.

He attempted a shrug. "Out."

"Out where?"

Draco couldn't help but feel like this was summer between Hogwarts all over again, when he and Blaise would steal his father's broomsticks from the shed to have a go around the gardens. "With mates."

Out of nowhere, his mother slammed the newspaper down on the coffee table. "Just what sort of 'mates' are you trying to attract these days, dear?" A stealthy, knowing look crossed her features before Draco's eyes trailed down to the paper. It was a picture of him and Granger at the fountain, her head cradled precariously in his lap. Shit. Had there been a photographer following them? He thought he'd been careful but, then again, he was hammered last night.

"That isn't what it looks like," he began.

Narcissa rolled her eyes. "Well, of course it isn't. If I thought it was, we'd be having an entirely different sort of conversation: one with Astoria so I could support her in hexing you. As it stands...I trust my son enough to know there is an explanation."

Cautiously, Draco began, "Granger and I were just having fun. Friends. That's it."

His mother trailed her eyes down to the paper, particularly transfixed on the way drunken picture-Draco stroked his thumb across Hermione's cheek. "Friendly is a word for it."

"I didn't cheat-"

"Well, of course you didn't, dear. The question isn't if you remained loyal; Malfoy men are notoriously faithful to the women they're with. The question remains how we assess damage control for your less-than-intelligent behavior." She folded her hands in her lap politely and pursed her lips. "Are you and Astoria still playing this childish silent treatment with each other?"

"I think she forgot it was supposed to be a phase," he grumbled, slumping into the armchair across from her. "Why aren't you furious?"

"Because I know you well enough to know that you'll brood enough for the both of us."

"Hmph." Draco picked up the paper and read over the tabloid, quiet for a time. He kept coming back to Hermione's face, so serene and trusting, resting against him in the photo. He remembered how warm her skin had been under his touch, and how he'd wanted nothing more than to rest there with her at the fountain. However, he'd managed to stir her awake long enough to guide her into the Leaky and order them two rooms to crash in. He remembered sitting on the edge of his bed, knowing she rested just on the other side of the thin wall. It had been bloody hard to fall asleep, even as drunk as he'd been. "Shit...I wonder if she's seen this yet." He could only imagine how Hermione was taking the news of being some eye candy on his arm...lap...whatever.

"No doubt Astoria's probably climbing the walls as we speak, wondering how best to poison you."

Oh right. Astoria. How many times could he think the word damn before it actually damned him?