Baton Rouge

- 24 -

Draco leaned his head against the cool pane of the living room window and stared out into the night. Two days. Two whole days he had already spent without Granger. Without her provocations, her annoyingly curious questions, her accusatory looks. Two days without a woman who drove him mad. Who he couldn't stand. Who despised him.

But yet... Draco sighed and closed his eyes.

Her leaving had been unspectacular. Draco suspected that the Baton Rouge's spell had forced her to set off instantly after the deadline. That made perfect sense, because they would hardly risk that the women didn't find their way back to the brothel immediately, but took a detour - or didn't come back at all.

So he had stood in his bedroom, still naked and still wet, and listened with his eyes closed as she left his apartment. She had gotten dressed, had grabbed her bag, which still had been in his living room next to the sofa, and after a few minutes, Draco had heard the front door slam shut. It had been quite a while before he had been able to push himself off the bedroom door he had pressed his back against and make sure she was really gone. She had been gone.

He had assumed he would be relieved. After all, ever since he had signed that bloody contract, he had been looking forward to the day he would be rid of her—and all her troubles. But now that their days together were over, he felt exactly no relief. Instead, an indefinable feeling had spread through him that he couldn't classify.

Was he worried about Granger? He shook his head slightly, eyes still closed. Had it really come to that? It was difficult for him, but he had to admit that it wasn't irrelevant to him that she had returned to her old life. This life that didn't fit at all with the Granger he had once known.

And then maybe there was something else. Something that had made him not even say goodbye to her but let her go without another word because he just hadn't found the strength to look her in the eyes.

Even when she had still been with him, he'd had that feeling several times but always successfully stifled it. Had blamed it on the sex he had gotten from her and she had been so willing to give him. If Draco didn't know better, he might have labeled that feeling as longing. But that was utter nonsense.

The physicalness between them had made him feel that way. That's how it had to be. Too quickly, Draco had gotten used to being touched the way Granger had done. That was why it was so hard for him now to accept that he wouldn't feel it again. Or hear her soft moans in his ear. Or look into her fawn eyes that seemed so innocent to him.

"That's enough," he said out loud to give the words more meaning, then pushed off the windowsill and crossed his apartment with long strides.

He wouldn't give Granger any further thoughts. He would not give her that power over him. She was a whore, she was a traitor, and she meant absolutely nothing to him. And no matter what had happened between them in the past few days (admittedly, more often than Draco had wanted to let it happen), it wouldn't change the fact that they couldn't stand each other.

With that last thought he closed the Granger chapter in his head, slipped into his robes and left his apartment.

+.+.+

A low murmuring reached Draco's ears as he walked past Blaise's office door to get himself some (probably tepid and stale) coffee. He hesitated and eventually stopped with a glance at his timepiece. It was so late that he was surprised that Blaise still appeared to be at the Ministry. Blaise was committed, spending significantly more time in his office than Draco in the last few weeks, but he usually preferred the days to nights to go about his business.

It was already after midnight. While Draco had only been drawn to the Ministry in hopes of finding something useful to distract himself (tracking Potter down at best) it struck him as odd that Blaise was still here as well. Eventually he snapped out of his rigid state, raised his arm and knocked against the black paneled door. The murmuring stopped.