Tango * dramione

Chapter 24

Chapter 24: off the beaten path

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"Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Stage Left: Draco Malfoy
Setting: Malfoy Manor

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Draco sat by himself at his kitchen table, sipping on a cup of ebony, wondering if she was thinking about him the way he was thinking about her. Two days had passed since their date...well, was it that? It was supposed to be only lunch, but it had turned into a whole day's worth of events that ended in kissing. Could that even be considered a date by muggle standards? Did Hermione even hold herself to 'muggle' standards? Why the fuck was he caring?

"Sigh..." He muttered into his coffee.

"Sigh?" asked a calm, collected voice from the doorway. Draco glanced up to find his mother staring back at him. "Did you just say the word 'sigh' instead of actually sighing?"

"I can do what I want, Mother. I'm an adult." He took a sip of his coffee and nearly burned his tongue. "Ouch!"

"And yet you still haven't learned the basics." Narcissa rolled her eyes. "Where is Astoria?"

How the Hell should I know? Draco's mind instantly wanted to snark back, but he then remembered that they hadn't exactly announced their called off engagements just yet. "Out, I suppose," he replied.

"That's interesting. Don't you care where she is?"

"Again. Adults. She's perfectly capable-"

"Of running our reputation into the ground?" Narcissa snapped, her heels clacking across the floor.

"What are you drolling on about?" Crap, what had Astoria done?

"You're lucky I know a few people who managed to keep this whole business under wraps -unlike your debacle last time with Miss Granger." The woman took a seat across from Draco like a cobra deducing when best to strike. "Would you like to know what your darling Astoria has been up to while you've been away? I'll give you a clue. It involves classless, freckled redheads and a fetish for the poor."

Draco actually sighed into his coffee this time. Maybe it was time to give up the ghost. "Astoria is free to do as she pleases." Even as he said it, there was a twinge of something -a knee jerk reaction of jealousy and possessiveness. It wasn't his place to feel this way, but damn it. He'd been with Astoria for years - and she was already finding a snug place in Weasley's company? Not that he had any room to talk, being out with Hermione...

Narcissa quirked one pristine eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"...As a matter of fact." With an authority known only to a Malfoy man, Draco pushed himself up out of his chair. "We're..." He attempted softening the blow. "Taking time to evaluate things."

"Evaluate?"

"It's what I said, isn't it?" Merlin, it was hot in this room.

"Draco Lucius Malfoy, are you trying to tell me you've thrown the one decent thing you've done in your life into the gutter?"

"Oh, was it just the one? I'm so glad to know nothing else in my life adds up to a failed engagement," Draco sneered dully, rolling his eyes. It was a mistake, because Narcissa gave a tsk under her breath, which could only mean she was about to lay the wrath of Morgana herself down upon her child.