Witch? Wizard?

Witch? Wizard?
Chapter I

Hermione
Granger froze in the portrait hole. Too stunned to move, she clutched
her books anxiously to her chest, her mouth gaping as she just stared.
There, in her common room - the common room that she shared with only
one other soul, the Head Boy - sat Draco Malfoy. If Hermione had
managed to find a single positive factor in the revelation of the Head
Boy, it had most certainly been the fact that his name was not Draco
Malfoy. As far as she was concerned, the arrogant Slytherin could have
personally delivered Voldemort to the Order, tap dancing and singing Kumbayah, and Hermione\'s opinion of the arrogant prat would still be filed under \'World Class Git\'.


Frozen by the appearance of the two Slytherins, Hermione could do little more than force her mouth closed and swallow. \'You\'ll catch flies, dear,\'

a residual echo of her mother\'s voice warned in the back of her head.
But, one really couldn\'t blame her for standing in disbelief, could
they? After all, she had thought that her day could not have possibly
gotten any worse. Detention with the Potions master for not correcting
Neville\'s errant actions, of all things, was about the worst end she
could have dreamed for her day. \'Best not to tempt fate,\'
Hermione thought as she recognized that she was hours away from
midnight and this day, along with her living situation, had indeed just
gotten infinitely worse than she could have imagined.


As if
it weren\'t bad enough that she had spent the summer growing accustomed
to the idea of sharing her living space with a Slytherin. As if it
weren\'t bad enough that said Slytherin, Blaise Zabini, had been
everything short of hostile to her during this past week, \'Only the entire school year left,\'
she thought ruefully. As if it weren\'t bad enough that the Head Boy had
apparently taken it upon himself to invite the last person on earth
Hermione wished to see to their quarters; Draco Malfoy\'s head was
presently lolling back over the armrest of the couch. The ends of his
strikingly blond hair splayed against the sofa\'s edge as Blaise\'s solid
frame trembled atop Draco\'s slender one. The site was disturbing on so
many different levels.


\"Oh yes, Zabini,\" Draco hissed, his
hands fisting in Blaise\'s thick curls as he arched his neck further to
present it to the Head Boy; knees splaying wider, inviting broad hips
to grind their painful erections against one another.


Blaise\'s
eyes fluttered and he groaned as he bit at the pale flesh of Draco\'s
throat. His hands slid down until they rested between their
cloth-covered erections. Draco\'s hips bucked up against the pressure of
Blaise\'s palm as he pulled the boy\'s mouth to his.


Hermione
stood at the door unsure of how to react. She had stood there for far
too long to feign surprise. She had learned on their first night back
that their portrait had an annoying obsession with the truth. If
anything remotely resembled deceit, the batty witch known as the
Duchess would be quick to correct the charlatan, with little regard for
who else might be around.


Fortunately, or perhaps not,
Hermione did not have to reflect for much longer on how to move from
her post. As Draco released Blaise\'s mouth, the Head Boy\'s eyes
fluttered open. As his head turned to offer his neck to the blond,
Hermione saw the Italian wizard\'s eyes startle in a way that let her
know her position had been compromised. Lowering her head slightly in
embarrassment, Hermione pulled her things closer to her as she stepped
fully into the shared common area, Blaise announcing her presence as he
cleared his throat.


Much to her amazement, Blaise\'s noise
did not deter Draco in the least; rather, it spurred him on further if
anything. Fisting his hair in dark curls, Draco murmured against his
lover\'s neck. \"I\'m sure Miss Granger can wait. I do believe that I had
you first.\"


Any timidity that Hermione had felt upon walking in on the two wizards was quickly erased by indignation. \"I assure you that Miss Granger
was not waiting on anything other than some sense of propriety to knock
the two of you upside your head. I\'ll just leave you to it, although
I\'d ask in the future that you would be so kind as to retire to you private quarters Blaise.\"


Draco\'s
voice trailed behind her as Hermione fled the common area, her feet
taking the steps as fast as she could, and her heart beating double
time. When she stepped inside of her room, she quickly dumped her books
on the bed and put up extra wards on her doors. What was wrong with
what she\'d just seen? More like what wasn\'t wrong with it.


Honestly,
was it so unreasonable to expect that she should be able to retire to
her quarters in peace? It was bad enough that the Headmaster
continually scheduled shared classes with the most divisive houses,
indirectly subjecting her to Malfoy\'s taunts almost daily. It wasn\'t
much better that she now shared quarters with Blaise Zabini. Though few
knew much about him as he kept to himself, Hermione quickly learned
that his tongue was every bit as forked and venomous as his housemates.
But, to walk in on the two of them snogging; and Malfoy had some nerve. \'I\'m sure Miss Granger can wait. I do believe that I had you first.\'


***


Hermione
quickly resigned herself to the fact that as long as she shared
quarters with Blaise Zabini, she would be seeing a lot more, a whole lot more of Malfoy than she liked.


\"You
know Blaise, while there is nothing prohibiting you from having your
boyfriend visit you in your quarters, I don\'t believe the Headmaster
would approve of your activities,\" Hermione quipped one day as Malfoy
was leaving their rooms. They had been particularly exuberant in their
activities and Hermione had needed to reinforce the sound proofing
wards twice in the course of the evening.


Laughing, the dark
haired Slytherin turned to walk over to Hermione. \"What\'s wrong love?
Feeling left out? You know, we could arrange for a demonstration of
sorts in the common room again. The Duchess was only too anxious to
inform me of how entranced you were that night you caught the two of us
in here. It seems that you played the quiet observer for quite some
time before I noticed you.\"


Refusing her cheeks\' request to
flush at Blaise\'s knowing grin, Hermione shot an angry look at the
portrait guarding their entrance.


\"T\'was only right darling.
I would have done the same for you, you know. I couldn\'t bear the
thought of allowing one to spy on another without their knowledge. You
do know how much I hate deception,\" the meddlesome portrait offered
with a shrug before leaving to find better company.


\'Give me a crazy knight who would rather duel than accept a password any day,\' Hermione thought, vowing to visit with Sir Cadogan as soon as she had the opportunity.


\"What\'s
the matter, does the Head Girl need to do some research to find out
what it is that her best friends have that she can\'t offer? I see it\'s
been seven years and you\'ve still been unable to split up the dynamic
duo. Gotten tired of being the third wheel?\"


Hermione looked
at Blaise in astonishment. \"You know, you should really leave the
taunting to your boyfriend. This might be the only compliment that I
will ever give him, but he\'s definitely more adept at it than
you. You do remember what house I\'m in? I doubt there\'s anything that
you and Draco could expose me to that Dean and Seamus haven\'t already
done, several times over.


\"As far as Harry and Ron are
concerned, we are just friends. I think perhaps you\'re projecting your
own insecurities onto me. Finally realized that you\'re not man, I\'m
sorry, woman enough to keep Draco\'s attention? Must be tough to watch
him fawn over Pansy like that, hell, I\'ve even seen him put his arms
around Millicent in public, but he\'ll barely acknowledge you.\"


Refusing
to allow the Head Girl to ruffle him, Blaise regained his composure
before walking closer. \"You know Granger, it\'s nothing to be ashamed
of,\" he offered, a cocky grin, she wouldn\'t have known him capable of
possessing before this year, spreading across his face. \"I understand
that it would be difficult for someone like you to resist the two of us
and some things are better learned practically,\" he stated
before running his fingertips down the side of her cheek, the timbre of
his voice dropping as he caught her brown eyes in his gaze. \"You should
try, after all, to apply those lessons you\'ve learned by observation. I
imagine that my boyfriend, as you call him, could be persuaded to take pity on you.\"


Hermione
snatched her arm from his touch before standing and walking to the foot
of the steps. Turning to face him once again, her temper flaring, she
gave voice to the thoughts that she had considered keeping to herself.
\"You really are pathetic Zabini. In a few years, you\'re going to
realize all the time that you\'ve wasted trying to capture something
that you\'ll never have. If there\'s anyone that deserves pity, it is
you.\"


Blaise ignored the sting of her words, forcing a
chuckle as he called up the stairs behind her. \"But Granger, you could
consider it research.\"