"There, this place," Audette called out eventually, pointing at a rather posh chalet that only the wealthy tended to frequent. The name in the center of the second-storey brickwork was written in such splendid cursive it was nearly impossible to make out, but she was quite certain it read Befana.

Draco nodded with approval, leading her inside by their handhold.

They followed a waiter deeper into the dark restaurant which was absolutely packed with stately individuals all clad like they were guests on the titanic and speaking in respectfully low hushes.

Gold ornamentation around the ceiling's edge drew Audette's attention skyward as the metallic designs sharply contrasted with the beautiful rouge wallpaper dating back decades.

The tables were dressed with black cloths, white pumpkins, tall black pillar candles and red roses in empty wine bottles.

Audette thought highly of the lovely decor until she noticed that four hairy black spiders the size of her hand were crawling around in a wiry enclosure as a morbid centerpiece.

They shrugged off their coats in the dim booth, and she found herself adoring the grey and white dress shirt he'd worn for the occasion, half expecting that he'd have thrown on a t-shirt just to protest the date's authenticity.

She sat across from Draco and he stared right back with two fingers to his temple, leaning far in the antiquated cushioning on his side. They were nestled safely in the corner, only garnishing a glance from a few of the Hogwarts staff members who appeared as equally perplexed by Draco being out on a date as he was himself.

He waved his fingers in the air, checking his watch impatiently, "What happens now, Audette?"

She played with a folded napkin, ruining the origami of a cat disgracefully as a man in black clothing poured water into metal goblets for them, "I suppose we talk. How was your summer?"

Draco snorted, his eyes watching her ruin the papery object before him, "How was my summer? Oh wouldn't you like to know..."

"I would," she replied. Audette waited patiently with a blank expression, passive aggressively providing a hint that she wanted him to continue speaking.

"Think me a fool?" Draco laughed, flattening his hand on the table, "I'm not telling you about Monaco. In fact, I'm not even capable of providing that information at the risk of my own existence. All I can say is the climate was much too hot for my preferences, and I'm quite certain it was even hotter for your friend Nott."

"Did you spend any of it at home?" she ventured, carefully avoiding the question she really wanted to ask; why was it so hot for Nott?

Draco groaned, his alluring eyes inspecting her face for a moment, "Some."

He raised his slender hand as a waiter was just rushing by, and without turning his head he snapped his fingers in the air, "If we're going to sit here and quiz each other then we'd might as well get drunk for it."

The man spun in a daze at the antiquated gesture, "Uh, uh, yes sir, can I help you sir?"

Draco gave him a dry look as though the individual twice his age were a blithering idiot, despite being an eighteen year old boy who was out of place in a very pricey venue, "Bring us your most expensive wine, none of that watery sewage you no doubt are serving the rest of these simpletons."

The waiter laughed apprehensively, darting his eyes first to Audette then leaning in to whisper something to Draco.

Draco raised his eyebrows with a cruel glint in his features, "I must be mistaken - are you my personal financial advisor? There is nothing the matter with that amount. I assure you, if I wished to own a barn filled with animals I would purchase this entire building today. Go and get it without any further insults or there will be consequences."

He watched with a vicious sneer on his face as the man apologized and practically tripped out of their vicinity.

"Well aren't you the perfect vision of a wealthy snob," Audette was gobsmacked. She knew that he could be mean and presumptuous but that was intense. "How much was it?" she asked.

He shrugged, "It's not important, I'll buy you anything you want. Did Nott fail to treat you properly? He's got galleons in the bank, don't let him fool you."

She sighed at the unfair and brassy comparison, twirling around a piece of her golden waves, "I was with him for a long time, of course I'm aware of the nature of his accounts. He was more than generous if you really must know. I owe half of my dresses to his largesse."

"Hmm, duly noted, although I imagine there are far nicer bestowals than simply fabrics," Draco stared at the ceiling absently, drumming his fingers on the tabletop.

Two of the spiders began to fight quite nastily, lunging and hissing at each other.

Audette made to dig around in her umber jacket pockets, taking note that the evening could use a little excitement other than alcohol. Draco was holing up rapidly now that they were immobile at a table and the materiality of the date had reached it's completion.

She couldn't tell if his revised, festering mood was the result of being annoyed or plain out nervous.

The waiter returned shakily, repeatedly apologizing once more to the fierce customer he was obviously afraid of as he uncorked the navy bottle that looked like it was centuries old, "Mr. Malfoy, I do apologize. I-I should've recognized the crest on your jacket -"

Draco cut him off with a fiery glare, "Don't beg, it's unbecoming of this institution. Just leave the bottle and get out of my sight."

Once the man had bumbled off Audette chewed on her bottom lip, timidly pushing a white pill at Draco who's face in turn darkened skeptically, "Want to have some real fun? Loosen up a bit, so they say. I have actual confidence from Cosmos this time that it's legitimate."

He choked on the water he'd been sipping, "You've gone barmy - after what happened the last time you ingested something from Cosmos? Audette you had your face against a giant fish tank for eons. And I could be kicked from the team, not a chance."

"It was fun in the start at least," Audette conceded, popping one right in front of him and washing it down with her entire goblet of water.

It was silent as he processed her blatant disobedience, sitting there beaming tauntingly. Draco put down his own goblet with a perturbed glower, "Terrific. Now I will have to babysit you a second time."

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She patted his hand, "Come come, it will make this much more exhilarating. Nott and I had some of the best dates this way."

Dropping Theo's name again - albeit already having agreed not to - seemed to do the trick.

Draco scowled rather quickly, scoffing loudly, "I'm well aware that you and Nott partook in...poisonous self medications. Altered states of consciousness aren't exactly my cup of tea." Even still, he picked up the hard disk and squinted at it in his fingers, then discretely pressed it between his lips.

Audette clapped her hands, "Aw, you would do it for me?"

He said nothing, pouring wine dismissively as if he hadn't heard her. Audette could hardly contain her excitement that they were about to go on a personal journey together that night. He had absolutely no clue the wild ride he was in for.

The steep price point of the wine hadn't been set without logic; it turned out to be notably delicious and smooth, almost dangerously easy to knock back like a tasty juice.

Draco took out his wand and began poking at the spiders through the cage with a devilish sparkle in his eyes, firing them up childishly, "My turn. What are you studying with McGonagall in private?"

"I'm not capable of providing that information at the risk of my own existence," Audette acerbically grinned at him.

"Yeah, yeah," Draco chewed on his lip, "Trust that will find out this mysterious secret of yours. I have methods."

"Don't hold your breath - McGonagall is as impenetrable as Gringotts," Audette replied in a sugary tone, changing the dialogue, "How come you've never had a girlfriend, Draco? You're not as unbearable as you pretend to be."

Draco refused to glance up from his quest to religiously piss off the caged arachnids, diving his sleek black wand at their buggy faces from various angles, "Why thank you for that stellar review - it may go straight to my head that I am partially bearable. It's personal."

Determined to know more she prodded him in the candlelight, "Haven't you been lonely? Even Crabbe has Millicent, and that's hard to believe."

He inhaled sharply, his face flinching all over as if the inquiries were strikingly irksome, "Yes Audette, it has not been ideal. But I won't settle for the sake of squelching rumors or extinguishing companionless desolation. That would be the behavior of someone lacking complete confidence. I know precisely what I want."

She was suddenly met with icy blue orbs staring straight into her soul.

"And what is that?" Audette requested in a papery voice.

Draco played with his wand in his fingers, his eyes dropping to the wooden property, "Something forbidden."

It was agonizingly quiet after that for almost ten minutes as they both drank in contemplation and watched other guests interacting. He didn't seem particularly loquacious, and Audette was so focused on what his arcane words had meant that she failed to notice changes to her homeostatic balance.

"Fuck, I feel it already," Draco yanked at his collar with an expression of mild discomfort seeping into his features, his eyes starting to bulge out of his head, "Is my heart supposed to be hammering like this?"

Audette breathed out whimsically as a wonderful rush of euphoria crashed over her own nervous system, "Hmmm, mmhmm, just flow with it."

He panted, but the most delightful smile eventually ebbed across his sharp face. He turned his hands over in front of his eyes, flexing his fingers, "Fuck, this actually feels fantastic."

Audette's spine had started to go loopy, and she smiled crookedly at him from below her long hair which had fallen aside half of her face, "I knew you would approve." Instinctively she reached her hand across the table and twinkled her fingers at him, "You're so handsome when you genuinely smile. You aught to do it more often."

The drugs were strong; knowing they came from Guy, it shouldn't have been surprising. She couldn't stop sighing through the sheer blissful happiness unfolding in her racing heart, stretching her spine and her arms above her head with a goofy smile.

Draco stared at her through dopey eyes and an opened mouth, whispering in a dull, stoned voice, "Come sit over here, you're too far away."

She giddily slid around the half-moon booth to cuddle up next to him, both of their temperatures absolutely soaring even though the restaurant was dark and cold. Every inch of her skin prickled with an endless buzzing and her eyes felt monstrously wide.

Draco picked up her hand and deftly peeled off her small wrist glove, then started kissing her fingers, "You're so soft, and you always smell like...flowers."

She let slip a pixy gasp as he raised his dilated blue eyes to hers, running her fingers across his lips. He gently bit the side of her hand several times and she moaned warmly, "That feels nice, it's kind of turning me on you know.

He laughed once, his eyes leaden with lust, "Don't even joke about that."

"I'm not," she could feel the want twisting in her lower body, the hype and visceral desire building by the second. He bit his way subtly down her arm, pulling back her long sleeve without peeling away his gaze.

Audette blocked out her view of a shocked man with a braided beard who was tensely observing their coddling across the aisle.

As if he'd run a marathon seconds earlier Draco's breathing grew heavily labored and wild, his skin sweaty against hers. They stared unblinkingly into each other insane eyes, wordlessly on the same wavelength.

It was as if no one else was in the room as they hyper concentrated on one another through the fizzing elation.

Audette suddenly felt like she could say absolutely anything to him and it would be alright, "How many girls have you slept with, Draco?"

He flashed her a boyish grin, flattening her palm against his rosy cheek, "None."

He opened his mouth, faking a clownish, shocked expression.

"Oh come on, you can tell me. You don't have to whisper sweet nothings in my ear. I won't throw a fit," Audette responded earnestly, hearing her own voice releasing in a strange reverberation as she spoke.

He laughed melodically, raising his eyebrows, "None."

She searched his eyes. "You great fibber, do you have any idea how many girls have gone off right in front of me about their experiences with you?" Audette pointed out unusually calmly.

He kissed her palm again, then let it go, "I know exactly what you've heard. You'll believe whatever you want to, no sense in asking." He didn't bother to say anything else, running a hand up through his damp hair and unbuttoning his shirt twice.

She watched him moving thirstily, blurting out a regretful fact that should've been mortifying but thankfully wasn't under the weight of the electric high, "I've only been with one boy."

Draco had started to drink straight from the wine bottle, and stately people were shooting him the stink eye for the uncivilized behavior.

He put it down and faced her, "Yeah...I know. We all know."

"I've been thinking about...what it would really be like with you," her lips moved all on their own, her inhibitions totally asleep behind the wheel. Boldly, Audette squeezed his upper thigh under the table and Draco jumped in shock, knocking over the wine into the spider's cage.

It was a mad scramble to shove table linens into the flood zone, both of them laughing nervously. Audette lifted up the poor spiders who had all crawled to the top of their enclosure to cling as far as possible from the alcoholic bath they'd just been subjected to.

Draco's voice rose several octaves higher as he patted at the mess, "You...wait, you what? Can I get that in writing when you're sober?"

Audette put down the spiders and leaned close to him, pulling his face down to hers with her fingers tangled at his neckline.

Draco closed his eyes and swallowed as they rubbed their noses together, his arms still full of soiled linens before them. "Have you thought about it? Us, intimately?" she breathed out, her whole entire body pulsing with chemical throng.

"Is that even a question? Constantly," he smiled in place, blowing hot air across her face.

A funny, nervous feeling blossomed in her stomach. She batted her eyelids, shifting her forehead against his, "I mean, is it not...strange? How we ended up here?"

He started to peck carefully at her lips, "Maybe in your opinion."

"We should do it," she blurted, then caught her breath as her heart scalded in her chest, threatening to stop altogether.

Draco whimpered and nodded, his shut eyelids crinkling in obvious imagination. She felt his lips move against hers as he shifted still closer to her, twisting his fingers around her neck softly, "We definitely should, Audette."

She pulled at his hair hungrily, sucking in his sugary breath as they panted millimetres apart. He used his thumb to push her jaw upwards into his hot kisses. The vivid longing was so furious she wasn't sure she could make it back up the hill without shoving him into a pile of leaves.

If someone had told her years ago that she would one day crave Draco Malfoy naked in her bed she'd have laughed in their face, but clearly things had changed. Not only did she crave it but she was quite certain his body would feel like heaven.

She was just preparing to lose herself to snogging him when her drugged mind began to play tricks on her, noticing the most peculiar of things out of the corner of her shutting eyes, "Oh my, that man, he looks damn near identical to you."

"Where? Show me," Draco froze with his arms around her, going as pale as a ghost when he broke away to acknowledge who she was pointing at.