Blaire Zabini || Draco Malfoy

28 - Prefection

"No."

I felt a brief kick to my leg under the table, and I looked up see Draco's eyes widening, silently trying to tell me to shut the fuck up.

"What do you mean by no?" Lucius bristled, obviously not familiar with this strange and unusual word.

"It's the opposite of yes." I shrugged. "I have a dictionary at home, you see. Really useful for times like these when you stumble across such alien sounding words."

I heard a small groan emit from Draco's lips as he slowly lowered his head in his hands, hiding behind his long slender ringed fingers as though unable to watch any further.

"My dear," Lucius drawled, his smile remaining fixed upon his thin lips as his eyes flashed dangerously, "it is most prudent of you to disagree with me. Have I not welcomed you into our home year after year with open arms? Have I not allowed you to enjoy spending time with my son, permitting you to eat the food from our cupboards and agreeing for you to accompany us on the occasional family outing?"

"And I am most grateful to you and Narcissa," I said, keeping my own smile unwavering, refusing to cower before this man's attempts at intimidation. "But I don't see why that means I need to agree to show my support of this Umbridge woman?"

"Because the Ministry supports her and it is therefore imperative that we are seen to be onside with Cornelius Fudge in every possible way." Lucius murmured, never taking his eyes off me. "I have given him my word that he can count on my son to be one hundred percent with me on this. Including by those who he associates himself with."

I went to open my mouth to call him a controlling prick, but Draco, obviously sensing my next words, hastily cut in front of me.

"Of course Blaire and I will show our support, Father," he blurted out, not meeting my eye. "I can even make some badges-"

"No need, Draco, no need," Lucius interrupted, holding his wine glass up to silence his son. "Besides, you'll both be wearing special badges of your own this coming Hogwarts year."

"Huh?" I asked, glancing up at him curiously as I moodily hacked into my steak.

"A gentle word in Dumbledore's ear has ensured you both the powerful roles of school prefects." Lucius said silkily, looking at us smugly as though he thought he was offering us a treat, not a fucking punishment. "I expect you both to thank me by using your new positions wisely."

"This sucks fucking cock!" I bellowed to Draco once we'd gotten back to the treehouse later that night. "I don't want to be a fucking prefect!"

"You know, it might not be all that bad," Draco mused, his eyes dancing excitedly - no doubt thinking about his shiny new badge. "There are privileges apparently; and at least we get to be prefects together."

"What kind of privileges?" I asked, my interest suddenly piqued. "Like free chocolate?"

"No, I mean stuff gold can't buy," he answered, his silver eyes gleaming, "like the power to issue detentions, our own private bedrooms, use of a special bath-"

"Hold up, rewind," I said twirling my finger in his face, "did you just say our own private bedrooms?"

"Yeah, I thought you knew?" Draco said unblinkingly. "Diggory had one after all."

"I thought that was just because he had the entire teacherhood wrapped around his conceited little finger?! I didn't realise it was actually a prefect thing. Fuck, maybe I actually owe your dad a bit of gratitude, after all."

Suddenly, fifth year was starting to sound quite cushty, I thought as I side glanced my best friend who was looking thoughtfully off into the distance; my stomach flipping as he slowly ran his fingers down along his jawline.

*****

Pansy's face fell when Draco declined her offer to share a compartment.

"Sorry, Pans," he said, fingering the little green and silver badge pinned to the front of his robes, "but Blaire and I belong in the prefect carriage now."

And with that, he grabbed my arm pulling me along behind him as I glanced back over my shoulder giving Pansy an apologetic shrug.

"I can't believe I'm saying this," I muttered in Draco's ear as we continued along the way, "but you're not being fair on the girl. If you don't want to be with her anymore then do the right thing and tell her."

"Look, we never made anything official in the first place," he said, his face pinched in a scowl. "It was just kissing."

"For two years!" I scolded. "If a boy had been kissing me for that long then I reckon I'd be somewhat invested. At least treat her better if you plan on continuing to shove your tongue down her throat!"

"Why do you suddenly care?" He asked, immediately stopping in his tracks to frown down at me. "You've never shown any interest in what Pansy and I get up to before."

"Because I know what it's like to be hurt by someone," I hissed, "and I wouldn't wish that upon anyone."

Draco blinked, guilt flickering in his eyes.

"Let's just get to the prefect carriage," he muttered, turning away from me.

He wasn't best pleased when we stepped inside and the first people we saw were Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Draco cried, his voice strangled as he drove his hands exasperatedly through his hair.

*****

I was glad when our prefect duties had been completed and we could finally go back to our own compartments.

I couldn't stand being anywhere near Cedric, feeling his angry Hufflepuff eyes glaring into my back.

It was clear he blamed me for him coming runner-up in the tournament; that somehow, me refusing to sleep with him had made him lose his game.

I tried to ignore him, to ignore the prickle of hurt and humiliation that he'd left inside of me.

But there was definitely a darkness surrounding him that hadn't been there before. A darkness that penetrated the room and made the air quite stifling to breathe.

Draco had been too incensed by the fact that two thirds of the golden trio were invading his space to notice anything else. He remained livid during the entire duty; not even issuing detentions to two second year Gryffindors for walking slowly cheered him up.

"I'm going to grab Crabbe and Goyle and go for a walk," he said huffily as we wandered back down the train after we'd been dismissed, peering through windows along our way for a potential seat.

"Whatever," I muttered, yanking open a door of an empty compartment, "just don't forget to give Potter my love."

I slammed the door shut behind me, leaving Draco spluttering alone in the corridor.

*****