UnExpected

Chapter 46

How about...no, she'd get caught. What if...forget it, she'd be expelled. Then again, it's not like it would be the first time she'd been kicked out of a school – and it would be so worth it. An expulsion for Umbridge's downfall does sound like a fair trade, doesn't it? She could always go back to Sunnydale and finish school there. It wouldn't be too bad.

Defence Against the Dark Arts had not been an easy class to sit through on the first day back. Not when Buffy knew that Umbridge was skulking into her life where she absolutely did not belong. And as Buffy pretended to read the book she had finished months ago, her mind planned all sorts of nasty and violent things whenever she was aware of the Pink-Eyesore. Which continued even after all her classes were over and she was passing through the third-floor corridor.

Leeches! Leeches were good. Wouldn't be too hard to come by, Snape must –

Anybody else, anything else, would've gotten a quick punch in the face. He was lucky she knew it was him.

"It's bordering on rude to yank someone into a room in the middle of an internal conversation, you know," she said, languidly walking to the nearest desk and leaning against it.

"It's also rude not to say hello after not seeing someone for three weeks," he shot back.

"Hello," she said brightly with a smile, and he fell right for the charm.

He grinned back. "Hi."

"So, since you just had to drag me in here," she said, exaggerating her words. "How was Christmas?"

He was about to reply 'the usual' when he was suddenly reminded, not that it was hard to miss, that he was more interested in what she had done.

"Speaking of which," he started, walking closer, raking his eyes over her. "What the hell happened to you and why didn't you do it sooner?"

A question Buffy was sure was being asked behind her back many times over.

"You know all these so-called compliments are starting to give me a complex," she said. "Was I so bad looking before?"

"No," he replied honestly. "But you have to admit, this is definitely an improvement."

"So, people seem to think."

"Yeah," he mumbled, a flash of Theodore and Buffy talking coming to mind.

"I don't know," she shrugged, unaware of the green in Draco's eyes. "I just felt like a change. New year and all. But enough about my stylish wardrobe, there's actually something I've been meaning to ask you."

"Okay," he ventured cautiously.

It was a thought that had been plaguing her for months, ever since the night he had caught her roaming Hogwarts after dark. "What is it that you do for Umbridge exactly?"

What an out-of-the-blue, curious question to ask. Which made him wary of the intentions behind it as Draco could see the wheels turning in her head. The eagerness in her eyes.

"Why do you want to know?"

Because leeches were too obvious.

"Curiosity," she shrugged nonchalantly.

Yeah, right.

"Noooo, I know you too well, Summers. You're up to something."

"I'm not up to anything. It's not my fault you've got a suspicious little mind."

"Actually it is," he said. "Every time I thought I had you figured out you'd somehow spin me with something new."

And Buffy smiled very proudly at his confession.