sugar & spice

chapter nine

Draco's invitation to Hogsmeade? It turned out he was one-hundred percent serious.

"Hogsmeade, really?" She fiddled with the feathered end of her quill, smoothing its edges between her thumb and forefinger. "Where would you want to go?"

It was highly doubtful Draco wanted to hang out in the Three Broomsticks. If he was even allowed to set foot in the door.

"We could go to Madame Pudifoot's," he suggested.

Theo nodded.

"The tea room? Isn't that..." Usually only frequented by couples, the tea room was pretty much snog central. "Where people go on dates?"

Draco and Theo both stared.

"Oh!" She set her quill down and clasped her fingers together. "So you wanted this to be a date, then?"

This thing between them, the three of them, was new. And for all the talking they'd done about how they felt, they hadn't exactly discussed what they were, not in any kind of official capacity. All or nothing wasn't quite a label. And they certainly hadn't discussed what they'd tell people, if they'd tell people.

They'd only met once since she had...well, beyond snogged Draco senseless in the stacks, and it had merely been a regular meeting to work on their project in the library. Strictly above board. So, yes, maybe they'd shared a few meaningful glances and snuck in a kiss or two in parting and Theo's hands might've...wandered, but that was it. Okay, and fine, the tone had been...different. Or rather, that undercurrent of tension she'd been ignoring? It was as if someone had turned the brightness up on a previously dim light and now that light illuminated everything, revealing their actions, their banter, the flirtation, for what it really was. They didn't have to pretend anymore, and they weren't.

But they certainly hadn't discussed bringing this very new relationship into the public.

Which was exactly what going to Hogsmeade would do. Going to Madame Pudifoot's would make a statement, a bold one.

"Yes?" Draco ran his fingers through his hair. "That was my intention, yes."

Theo watched her, silent.

Was she ready for that, everyone knowing? If the reaction to her friendship with the Slytherins had been a mixed bag, Merlin only knew how people would react to her entering into a relationship with them, both of them. She could already imagine the names she'd be called, the howlers she'd probably get.

She'd have to tell her friends. Ginny had mostly gotten over the fact that she and Hermione weren't going to be sisters in law, but she hadn't warmed up to the idea of Hermione's friendship with the pair. She was suspicious, certain that they had some sort of ulterior, nefarious motives for befriending Hermione, and Neville, to a lesser degree, was, too. Her only saving grace had been that no one had assumed there was anything beyond friendship happening between the three of them. Not yet, at least.

Dating one of them of one would have caused enough of a fuss. What would her friends-not to mention Harry and Ron-make of her being a member of a very different trio?

"Unless you'd rather not go," Draco muttered.

"I didn't say that." Apparently the time to have this conversation was now. "I only meant, we hadn't discussed what we would tell people."

Theo's eyes sharpened. "Had you planned on keeping this a secret?"

"No?" Her tone did little to soften the look on Theo's face. All it did was make Draco frown and look away. "I don't know. We hadn't talked about that part of, this. If we tell people, when we tell people, what we tell people."