Tainted Love

Knuckles

DRACO

Saturday

Draco sat in his living room letting the sun pour in. It was Halloween today. The entire nation was probably out putting on costumes. Iris and her friends were going out.

But he was staying in. Pansy had sent him a letter saying that she would come over tonight. He wanted to fix things with her more than he wanted most anything in his life. He wanted to fuck her. It had been so long without her.

He fingered the letter she had sent him, the letter that just said Saturday night. He felt relaxed. He had a strange sense that everything would work out, that he and Pansy would fit back together the way they always did, that everything that had happened between them on that weird Wednesday night would fade from his mind.

Night rolled around and he stood in front of his windows, a glass of wine in his hand. He set the bottle on the table, another empty glass beside it.

She was late, but Draco supposed it wasn't as easy for her to get out of the house now that she had Blaise with her. He felt a little stab of jealousy. He shouldn't have fucked Iris on Thursday. That was too close, too fresh in his memory.

He had managed to hold off on her yesterday by completely ignoring her. He wondered if she was angry at him, if she was sad that he hadn't spoken to her. It would be nice if she was. A nice feeling. He blinked hard. It would be nice to have the power over her, that was all. It would be nice to know his movements affected her.

It didn't go beyond that.

Pansy was definitely late now. The assurance Draco had felt in his stomach was quickly turning to something more like apprehension. The glass of wine he had been sipping on for the past hour began to burn a steady hole in his abdomen, a strange tightening feeling that spread to his chest. He put his glass down.

He willed the silence in his apartment to be broken by the metallic click of his door handles, the swishing sound as his wards bent to let Pansy in. He longed to hear the sound of her heels on the floor. He wouldn't even turn around until her footsteps were close to him.

But instead the silence was broken by a steady tapping on the window in his bedroom. Wary, he walked down the hallway and peered into his room. It was late for post, and he had already gotten the paper that morning.

But it wasn't an owl bringing the Daily Prophet. No.

It was Pansy's owl.

Draco's stomach seized even more. He opened the window and the bird fluttered in. He knew what the letter would say, knew before he even touched it. He felt sick seeing her owl perch on his dresser and wanted to push it back out of his window.

But it was Pansy's fault, not her bird's.

Draco,

My apologies, but we'll have to reschedule. Blaise has surprised me with a dinner in Diagon Alley for Halloween. I'll be in touch.

Sincerely,
Pansy Parkinson.

She wrote as if Blaise was looking over her shoulder. Maybe he had been. Pansy was always careful in her letters. She always made sure that they looked innocuous enough that if somebody got ahold of them, they wouldn't be able to tell that there was anything going on between her and Draco.

The only exception in the past five years had been the letter she sent him before going to Paris, her proclamation that she was always his. If she was still his she certainly hadn't been acting like it. She hadn't even bothered to tell him that she was leaving London for a month and a half in person.