sugar & spice

chapter six

"These runes translate directly to spilling blood, but I feel like contextually it's referring to murder."

Theo scooted his chair a little closer to peer at her parchment. "Ah, right. Okay, so if we read further down the passage to the next use, spilling blood paired with the rune that means father refers to-"

"Patricide." She nodded, lips twisting in a grimace.

Theo smirked, dimple flashing. "Just how I love to spend my Friday evenings. Discussing patricide with a beautiful woman. Draco's really missing out."

She chuckled, flushing, even though Theo's flirting was frequent and meaningless. Merlin, he did it in front of Draco. Of course it was meaningless.

"I'm sure you can fill him in on the patricide," she said. "And you can do it without it turning into an argument."

Malfoy was at Quidditch practice, a last minute addition to the schedule in preparation for tomorrow's match, Slytherin versus Hufflepuff.

He tsked. "It won't be the same. For starters, I'm not a beautiful woman. The effect will be entirely diminished."

"No," she grinned. "But you are a pretty boy. I'm sure he'll appreciate it coming from you even more."

Theo craned his neck back and scoffed. "A pretty boy. You wound me. I'm a man, Hermione. But I'm rather pleased to hear you find me pretty."

He was right. He was a man, tall and broad and so unfairly handsome. And so was Draco.

"My most sincere apologies, Theo," she joked, mostly to cover up her desire to press her mouth against the stubble on his jaw. "You're a pretty man."

She wasn't going to touch that bit about finding him attractive. There was only so much obfuscation she could manage in one meeting.

"That's more like it." He shot her a smile that in true Theo fashion turned sly in the blink of an eye. "It's funny. You act as if you think Draco doesn't enjoy your little arguments just as much as you do."

Shaking her head, she turned back to the text so he wouldn't see her blush so obviously. "There's nothing enjoyable about arguing. Save for the bit about being right, I suppose."

Theo chuckled under his breath.

Eyes still on the text, she jerked slightly when out of the blue, Theo's fingers approached her face. "What?"

"Hold still," he said. "You've got-"

He reached forward, warm fingertips sweeping the delicate, thin skin beneath her right eye. This close, the scent of clove on his fingers was thick, along with a hint of smoke and something sharp. Ink? She had to swallow. Last thing she needed was to start drooling.

"Blow."

She blinked away the fog of lust that had slipped over her mind like a gauzy curtain. "I beg your pardon?"

"Eyelash." He moved his hand back until the slash of black on the pad of his pointer finger became visible, her eyes no longer crossing to see. "Blow and don't forget to make a wish."

"I thought that was just a Muggle practice."

He shook his head, but held his tongue, waiting for her to get on with it.

What did she want? She had everything she wanted other than that which she couldn't have. Greater will power, maybe? Mental fortitude? Merlin, not just mental, she needed to get a grip on her body, too.

She glanced up at him from beneath her lashes, the ones still very much attached to her eyes and watched him watching her, the look in his eyes dark and inscrutable and...calculating. He nearly always had that look about him, like he was scheming, or he knew something she didn't and it should've set her on edge and-well, it did, but not the way it would've done so had the look come from just about anyone else. Theo's cunning felt dangerous, certainly, made her feel like she was prey, made her throat narrow and her pulse trip, but it didn't feel destructive. Dangerous like if a wolf decided to give chase to a rabbit, but upon catching it, decided to hold it between its teeth but not bite. A razor sharp line, definitely.