Becoming Beta

Chapter 13

"Granger? Really, Draco?" Blaise asked, flopping down into an armchair next to Draco in the Slytherin Common Room. Draco groaned. He had done well avoiding his friends for a few days - this was a conversation he was not looking forward to. Blaise was a dark-complected Italian, whose family was politically neutral, but he played the Slytherin pureblood games along with everyone else at Hogwarts.

"What are you talking about, Blaise?" he asked airily, flipping through his Potions text, trying to look much calmer than he felt.

"What happened in Defense earlier this week? You cursed the Weasel and held Granger. You. Draco Malfoy, Slytherin Prince, Pure-Blood Scion of the House of Malfoy. You touched a mudblood. Voluntarily," Blaise replied dryly. He leaned forward and put his hand on Draco's textbook, forcing him to look up. Draco glared at Blaise and closed his book, leaning back into his arm chair.

"Don't call her that," Draco said.

Blaise's eyebrows shot up, "Mudblood? Aren't you the person who introduced her to that word?"

Draco hissed when Blaise said it again. Blaise was right of course. He and Granger hadn't done much talking in the last few weeks, but eventually they would have to. He was a blood purist, and that hadn't really changed despite becoming a werewolf. He couldn't think of Granger in terms of being a mudblood though. Not since finding out she was his mate. He felt like being his mate made her pure somehow.

Draco nodded at Blaise, "She's my assignment," he muttered. Trying to extricate himself from the conversation as soon as possible.

"Your assignment? For what class?" Draco looked around and saw that nobody was paying them any attention. He cast a Notice-Me-Not spell around himself and Blaise.

"Don't play dumb, Blaise. It doesn't suit you," Draco replied. "She's the assignment the Dark Lord has given me."

Blaise smirked at Draco, which made Draco's insides crawl uncomfortably, but he smiled back, his mask too well-practiced.

"You are supposed to seduce her? Pansy won't like that." Blaise turned his smirk into a full-on grin. Draco almost grimaced at the thought of having this same conversation with Pansy, but shrugged his shoulders for Blaise's benefit.

"It doesn't matter what Pansy likes or wants. It's what the Dark Lord wants." Draco ran a hand through his hair.

Blaise hummed his agreement, "But still... how can you stand touching her?"

Draco's gaze narrowed for a moment before he was able to catch himself. He lifted his shoulder in reply, "Don't have much of a choice, do I? Touch a mudblood," he almost choked over the word, "or disobey the Dark Lord. One of those is much, much worse than the other." Why couldn't he say mudblood? He had never had a conscience before learning of his mate, and now he didn't even think of her as a mudblood, and couldn't talk about her as a mudblood either?

"Has your seduction succeeded then? Tell me the details! What is Granger like?" Blaise said leaning forward eagerly.

Draco could feel Reule waking up in the back of his mind, trying to push himself forward to protect his mate. Calm down, Reule. I've got this.

"You better, boy," Reule growled at him. Strange, he had never had a conversation with Reule when he wasn't a wolf. Did that mean Reule was getting stronger? Or Draco was adapting? He shook his head; he couldn't think about this now. He'd ask Fenrir in his next letter.

"Listen, even if I had succeeded in getting the mudblood to drop her knickers, I wouldn't be telling you about it. I might ask you to Obliviate me, but I wouldn't want to share the details and have to relive it myself," Draco shuddered for effect.