An Issue of Consequence

Chapter 5

Skipping lunch and avoiding Pansy seemed like the most sensible plan, if not the easiest. Pansy all but stalked him, demanding to know what, pray tell, was Draco doing in the Potions classroom since Slughorn was at the High Table during lunch.

Draco was tempted to ask her if Potter was at lunch, too, and whether he arrived late, just to make sure that the Potter who insisted on kissing him wasn't a figment of his imagination but was in fact the actual, real Potter. He resisted, however, and only showed up at supper to snatch a sandwich and leave before Pansy could spot him.

He hid in his dormitory, ate the sandwich, and downed the Calming Draught he had stolen from Slughorn's storeroom along with the love spell antidote. Taking the Draught had been wise; it instantly made him feel better. He could then sit on his bed, with a quill and parchment in his hands, and calmly and rationally consider the situation. He decided, grudgingly, that it was unlikely all this was Potter's evil plan. If Potter wanted to humiliate him by showing the world Draco was romantically and sexually interested in him, he was doing a poor, unconvincing job of it. Not only was Potter careful to keep their meetings a secret, Draco was certain that if Potter was trying to pull a simple prank, he wouldn't go as far as actually kissing Draco just to prove a point. Someone else must have been responsible.

"Is that your kill list?"

Of course, Draco should have realised that peace and quiet was too much to ask for. He glared up at Blaise. "It is. And you're on it." It was actually a list of suspects, and Blaise was definitely on it. In fact, quite a lot of people were on it. Draco had crossed out a few names because there were some people who would never hurt Potter by giving him an embarrassing crush on Draco, but then he realised that perhaps that hadn't been the intended result, merely an unwanted side effect. Perhaps they had intended to make Potter fall in love with them, and Draco had somehow been caught in the middle. He had to put Pansy on the list, too, since she had confessed to having a nervous breakdown, which meant she was currently unstable and could not be trusted. It seemed unreasonable to put Goyle on the list, as he didn't have the means or the brains or any reason Draco could think of to plot such a plan, but then again it was always the person one least expected, so Draco felt obligated to write down his name, though it was appropriately marked with many question marks and exclamation points.

"You're a very angry person. Did anyone ever tell you that?" Blaise didn't seem too upset about it, however. He grinned and winked when Draco scowled at him. "I like you anyway."

"No, no, you don't." Draco was getting rather sick of people winking at him.

Blaise gave him a peculiar look. "I'm sensing love troubles."

Draco stiffened. "And what would you know about that?"

"Plenty."

Blaise's smug smile seemed to negate the effects of the Calming Draught Draco had consumed. He jumped off the bed and stalked towards Blaise. He should have known. "It was you. You did this to Potter. Didn't you?"

Blaise smile slipped. He blinked. "Potter? Harry Potter? You're saying..." His eyes were very wide. He gasped. "You and Potter...?"