Anyone But Me

Chapter Forty-Six

"I am not asking for your hand in marriage Granger. And you cannot deny that it might be fun to change things up a bit. At least pretend that we are normal." Draco explained uneasily, the poorly disguised panic made the candlelight dance in his eyes.

"O...Okay." She mumbled, more to ease his fears than out of any real decision making on her part.

"You didn't sound very sure. I am surprised you are having issues deciding. A date is not nearly as... intimate as what we have already done. Regardless, you can say no." Her clumsy answer had, of course, done nothing to appease his misgivings... If anything it seemed to make his agitation worse resulting in his hands starting to shake, a subconscious movement he tried to cover up by rolling them at the wrist.

"I know... It's just bizarre to hear you ask me. I never would have thought that you would be the one to be checking off my list of firsts like you are."

He scoffed in disbelief and started tallying on his fingers. "Krum. McLaggen. I am sure the Weasel has offered..."

"Uhhh... If you consider having a hundred sets of eyes on you the whole night a 'date', I suppose Viktor would classify. Spending time with Cormac McLaggen was the farthest thing from an enjoyable evening, as I have already explained to you." She made sure she had his full attention before continuing to blather out the truth. "And Ron has never shown an interest until very recently... Which he found out was a very stupid move on his part for many reasons that I do not feel the need to dissect with you. Suffice it to say I have never been on anything remotely in the realm of a romantic date, much less one meant to be a celebration of Valentine's Day..."

In response his head turned toward the window he had given his attention to earlier. He crossed his arms as he worked over her little rant, trying to decide if he believed her words to be authentic or not. What couldn't have been more than thirty seconds felt like forever but he did end up turning back towards her with that cocky smirk playing at the corners of his lips. "I guess we will have to change that."

"I guess so..."

He shook his head at her before sighing. "I really should let you get back to your punishment."

"Ughh... Yes, you really should." She groaned, glancing over at the taunting stack of essays.

His laugh reached her ears and pulled her eyes back over to him like a magnet. "Poor Kitten... At least now I know to wake you up before leaving. Live and learn..."

"Just go Draco..." She glared over at him, once again contemplating on telling Snape about who was responsible for the dungbombs as revenge. "Before I end up going back on my word not to cause damage to Professor Snape's classroom by hexing the ever loving piss out of you..."

"I'd love to see you try..." He taunted, the obviously empty threat was enough to cause a spark of danger to be added to the kaleidoscope of emotions swirling in the depths of his gaze. "Unfortunately, I am a busy man and I do have places to be. Let me know the night that would work best for you."

As soon as the last words were out of his mouth he leaned over and placed a quick kiss to her temple and then stalked from the room. Leaving her to sit there with her goodbye still stuck on her lips in the deafening silence that was left behind. It unnerved her to be the only one that was left in the classroom. The feeling was much more intense than it would have been if she was alone in any other teacher's space.

She quickly continued her work with a deliberate concentration, an easy distraction so she didn't scare herself silly. An intentional act that allowed her to pass by most of the afternoon. Other than when she would stop and wonder where Snape was... Or just how many dungbombs Draco had given Peeves for him to still be occupied elsewhere...