For the life of her, Audette couldn't imagine why Draco had agreed to the Hogsmeade date.

He had plenty of opportunities all around him to hook up without needing to employ any such extensive effort, yet he was investing his valuable time in a ridiculous ordeal with Audette.

In fact, not a word that entire year had been circulated about Draco engaging with any other girl but Audette Bellarose, and she was beginning to savor it like an aged wine.

He was either on some kind of sick and tiresome mission to collect her along with all the other notches on his bedpost, or the more thrilling possibility was that he harbored actual feelings for her.

Audette's heart jumped as she bounced in front of the green fire, combing her fingers through her hair with jittery apprehension. She readjusted all of the little diamond daisies, trying to calm her giggling down to think rationally.

He was so pissed.

He reappeared looking aristocratically dapper in his brand name black clothing and fancy Malfoy crested outerwear.

She was still by the fireplace in her golden coat and pretty blue umbrella dress, smiling and wringing her hands like a silly doll.

He stopped beside her with his mouth pressed into a hard line and wide, tense eyes as though he were being forced to take her to a child's playground begrudgingly.

"After you," he waved a ringed hand towards the exit, his jewelry glinting in the firelight. It was apparent from his demeanor and tone of voice alone that he was feeling sheltered and weary.

At first it was an awkward and silent walk down to the tiny, romantic village that materialized on the distant hillside adjacent to Hogwarts, as though it were a set straight out of a Christmas movie.

Audette's nerves were a war zone; utterly electrified and leaving her unable to stop stealing glances at his grouchy profile as he puffed out chilly air and bumped into her randomly.

Draco smoked for the journey, gradually melting into a boy she once knew as a close friend.

Over the course of ten minutes he'd become approachable and conversational, and his gait transitioned from his typically angry, rigid stride which was a relief because she was having trouble keeping up.

He kept loudly cracking his neck in the setting sunlight, shooting his enchanting silver eyes to the waning sky above.

All along the trail he continuously raised his hand to passionately point out astral formations in the brightening stars above, the face of his watch glinting on his left wrist.

He smirked sideways at her as they neared the final bend, "The Astronomy Tower telescope is superior for Quadrantid meteor viewing. The anomaly occurs exactly at the beginning of January, when the radiant of material which lies in the constellation Boötes passes just above us."

Audette was lost in all of the scholarly wording, realizing then why he'd cast the illusion in the canopy of his bed, wondering perhaps if he did it every night before sleep.

Thinking back to his schedule she was puzzled, "Why aren't you in Greater Astronomy? Clearly you're passionate."

Draco shrugged, tossing the butt of his dart off into the woods where multiple pairs of ominous yellow eyes had been following them for several minutes, "It would hold me back - I'm a better independent study. If it's not too cold for your flimsy princess complex, perhaps I will show you in January."

"That is if we are still talking then," Audette spoke the gloomy words thoughtlessly.

Draco winced, and Audette sensed a similar sadness settle between them that had been there four years prior when they'd cut all ties.

He sneered at her sarcastically, "Yeah, you'll probably screw up your chance with me. Let's face it." The words felt as hollow as a rotten tree stump, lacking all conviction.

"Aha, very funny," Audette rolled her eyes.

Even after he attempted to lift the conversation back up with the silly jab she was swamped with guilt when he fell into a prolonged silence. Draco shoved his hands into his jacket with a heavy exhale, lost somewhere behind his eyes.

She found that she liked it better when he was excitedly ranting like a young Einstein.

He was turning out to be fortuitously complex, with very human emotions and personal quirks. Why Theodore constantly name-called Draco like he was some sort of witless brute crossed her mind as strange then, watching her boots flattening crispy leaves into the freezing dirt.

It was in all likelihood due to their competitive similarities, but oddly she had never realized Draco was in a premium percentile of intellect.

They were nearly to the entrance gateway when she decided to push her luck again by taking his hand. "Thank you, for being such a gentleman for me," she smiled up at him.

Draco stopped in his tracks to frown down at where she had entwined their fingers. He darted his eyes between the contact and her sweet expression, obviously feeling torn by the publicity of the very real, very concrete date they were embarking on.

Up until then he'd showed off to the school that he could get her into risky positions with deplorable meaning; kissing her in short stints and pawing at her during quick cuddles, but walking around hand holding in a charming village for a dinner was definitely the next level.

At the same time that nobody questioned his reputation through it all, Audette's pearly reputation had plummeted. Now it was time to balance the scale.

"You realize that being spotted like this will change everything for me, right? This is more then gentlemanly - this is social suicide," he glanced at her with a flat expression.

Audette straightened her spine, "Well in that case I've been socially massacred for weeks now. We've done it your way, and I want more. You've come here of your own accord, don't act like you're taken hostage."

"We haven't even done anything, and I'm merely reminding you of the sacrifice that I'm making for you. I hope you're taking this seriously. You had better still be talking to me in January, Audette," he blinked away from her, then eventually just snarled quietly and marched them forward.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"I have been taking it seriously this whole time," Audette giggled gently as he starting lifting his middle finger to all of the ogling students in the narrow alleyways that were speaking a little too loudly about the curious pairing.

Draco narrowed his eyes back at her cryptically, "That's hilarious, try the other way around."

Unfortunately while he hadn't been watching where he was going he slammed straight into Seamus Finnigan who had been talking to a pile of other Gryffindors in front of Honeyduke's Sweet Shop.

The tiny boy blindly stumbled a few feet with his tall toque flopping around, "Hey now, what's all this?"

"Watch yourself Finnigan, this village is pretty far away from any major bodies of water," Draco remarked cruelly over his shoulder.

Seamus cackled back at them when he managed to clear his vision and assess the harasser, "Oi, I haven't burnt nothin' down in a real stretch, Malfoy. Hey look a' that! Malfoy's got a girlfriend, and he's holdin' hands like a nancy!"

This resulted in a ripple of amused murmurings from the pack of red and yellow clad individuals.

"That's it," Draco spun, leaving Audette behind him just to reach out his palm and push Seamus backwards into the building by his entire face. A painful crack erupted when Seamus' skull collided with the bricks behind him.

With a dark glare at Dean Thomas who stepped forward to intervene, Draco yanked Audette off, "Do you see what I mean?"

Audette did see what he meant; it turned out that the school playboy professing his commitment was all that anyone cared to comment on as they walked by, despite the distracting attractions and fantastically themed atmosphere in the village.

The scary vibe of Halloween was rife in the frigid air, yet witches and wizards alike were hardly bothered by what was nearly an every day normalcy.

Enchanted skeletons clomped around on cracking legs with terrifying red orbs in their eye sockets. Pumpkins gibbered vile ideas through carved faces at passersby, situated at the bases of entrances like nipping chihuahuas. Large bats clung to the undersides of soffit to release pitched screeches, and a mysterious purple mist seemed to be permeating the air everywhere, effectively reducing visibility and increasing the ambiance.

They stopped to stare in through the windows of a particularly intriguing shop by the name of Inkie's Inventions. It was filled with gadgets and gizmos inspired by science and technomancy, humming, twirling, and bouncing.

Draco pointed his finger into the pane, shaking her hand in his, "Nice. Check it out, Audette, it's like your Consciaur. Do you think he gives better advice?"

The question was obviously meant to be rhetorical.

She peered at the small, seemingly sentient miniature Merlin that was waltzing around in a cage yelling instructions at copies of himself. The tiny, animated wizards no larger than mice were all barking back at equal intensity, and it was nearly impossible to hear what any one of them had to offer their poorly organized escape.

Draco seemed to be enjoying the atrocious nonsense with a diabolical glint in his eye.

Audette couldn't possibly fathom having one running around causing mayhem to her sleep, whilst T-T on the other hand was a darling, pudgy Sleeping Beauty.

They were rudely interrupted by the shout of a Russian female.

A group of women from Durmstrang had appeared out of nowhere to corner them against the store's facade in ruby red cloaks. The gorgeous girl at the front of the pack had long black braids interlaced down the sides of her skull, her obsidian eyes locked onto Draco, "Draco Malfoy! De famous Draco Malfoy, what have we here? My brother tells me you are very skilled with a broomstick, and perhaps you give out free rides."

She ran her fingers down the arm of his jacket, and Draco dropped Audette's hand to face the girl, "Not sure about that last bit, but yes I do play for Hogwarts." He smiled handsomely, soaking up the attention, and all of the girl's sent each other fluttering eyes.

"Well," the Durmstrang girl pulled out a crumpled piece of parchment from her pocket, pressing it into Draco's chest with the most sexually concentrated eyes Audette had ever seen in her life, "Here is passcode to enter ze ship at bay, and my room number, if you want to teach me some lessons."

She ran her tongue along her bottom lip, and Draco raised his eyebrows as he inspected the yellowed parchment. The girl's hand remained on his jacket, her eyes shooting dismissively to Audette as if to claim a total theft of the boy then and there.

Audette did what she did best and shot from zero to one hundred.

Stomping away in an angry huff she left the scene behind her, irritatingly perceiving Draco's charming voice in the background, "Well I hope you don't expect me to swim all the way out there. If I fly will I get shot down by those ghastly canons?"

All of the girls snickered, and Audette was relieved when she rounded the corner and could no longer hear the flirtations.

He waited only a minute longer to run and catch up with her, laughing obnoxiously as she trampled everything and everyone in her direct path like a tiny hurricane, her gloves curled into livid little balls at her sides.

"Aw come on Audette, she was just being friendly," he chuckled at her, choosing the worst possible moment to run his arm around her shoulders. She raised both paws and pushed him nearly off of his feet, but Draco wasn't phased at all.

He returned just as quickly, stepping in front of her athletically with hands raised to halt her, "Hey, hey, relax, relax, Jealousy Jane."

Audette made an awful face up at his incessant giggling, losing complete control of her temper, "She was not being friendly she was whoring herself out. How dare she look me in the eyes and do what she just did, and how dare you play along. Destroy that paper right now before me."

"I see," Draco's frosty eyes widened, inspecting her face as if he'd just met a new version of her, "You're one of those real nutty types, aren't you? Are you planning to eviscerate every girl that hits on me? Because if you are, there won't be anyone left breathing with two x chromosomes by the end of the year."

"That was no way to handle it on your part," Audette raged defensively, "You dropped my hand just to impress them."

Draco slanted his face to the side gently, but his eyes were tinted with frustration as if speaking to a toddler having a tantrum, "And what would you have me do? Pull one of her braids? You really are testing my patience today. Look."

He held the parchment in front of her face half a foot away, ripping it into a dozen squares that fell in feathery whorls to the ground. "All gone you mad person. Get a grip."

He held out his hand with a stern look, and the gesture made Audette realize she was in fact slightly overreacting. She inhaled a very heavy and deep breath of air, placing her glove in his again, but her nose remained markedly scrunched.

Draco pulled her along with an expression of complete satisfaction, making jabs at what had just went down, "I better watch out around you eh Audette, you're the type to go to Azkaban for murder over a look."

Audette bristled. It was true; her greatest weakness was controlling her jealousy, and everyone knew it. Her reactive hostility had contributed substantially to the lack of attempts by others to flirt with Theodore, who was still islanded from females even after their breakup.

And although she knew this about herself she simply refused to make any effort to channel it appropriately, "I won't deal with competing females if we continue to progress this."

"Yes well I can't believe I have to reiterate this, but we," Draco pointed between them dramatically, his face flashing with warning, "Are still in an understanding phase, which means you don't have the authority to place rules over what I do or who I speak to. Just fucking calm down already."

She turned her flustered face away to stare at a child who's mother had just handed him an ice lolly that kept regenerating itself no matter how many bites he took, "Take your chances then and see how long that understanding lasts between us. Given your particular notoriety you had better learn to swiftly reject advancing women, because I will not stand there and be made a fool twice, no matter what phase we are in."

"Made a fool? Made a fool...just look at how foolish you've already made me look in the past hour alone. I'm scared to think we haven't even sat down yet," Draco barked through a set of high pitched snorts. He muttered something else to himself that came out inaudible to her, rubbing at one of his eyes as they walked.

"Then go home with your tail between your legs," she remarked with her chin high in the air, "If you can't handle a single date night then that tells me everything I need to know."

"Do I look like the losing type to you? I'm not going anywhere it's too late now. You're very expensive Bellarose, you know that?" he commented, his unimpressed, crystalline eyes on everyone who was pointing at them and gossiping.

Yes, she was, and aptly so, and she was going to tame him if it was the last thing she did. It would be bloody historical.