Malfoy Manor

Draco quickly changed into a nice outfit for dinner complete with tie and jacket. Walking into his bathroom he brushed his teeth, neatened up his hair and added some cologne. Dinners at the manor were formal and always nerve-wracking. He walked into her bathroom as she finished getting ready and gave her a half-smile. He knew that she would understand exactly how he was feeling at that moment. Taking her hand again he led her out of their wing and they headed downstairs to the formal dining room. As they approached the table he let go of her hand and pulled out her chair for her. Taking his own seat he greeted his parents and the meal began.

Dinner proceeded quite formally, with small quiet conversations that lasted only briefly, discussing school and studies and plans for the future, both more immediate plans as well as further future plans with careers and things after graduation. Finally the house elves returned to begin removing their empty plates from in front of them and Draco and Pansy were permitted to leave. Pansy dipped her head a little as she thanked them for the meal and their hospitality before following Draco out into the hall and around the corner toward the main staircase that would lead them up to his wing of the Manor. As soon as Pansy knew they would be out of earshot of his parents, she reached down and took her shoes off, holding them rather casually in her hand. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, waiting until he looked over at her before she smirked and took off at a sprint toward the room they'd explored earlier that day, running as quickly as she could to beat him to the cupboard that would slide away to reveal a hidden staircase.

As they left dinner Draco looked over in time to see her holding her shoes before she sprinted off. He knew exactly where she was headed and, after glancing back to check his parents weren't there, he took off after her. He sprinted after her and took the stairs two at a time. As they got into their wing he caught up to her and ran past her to the door, yanking it open and running to the cabinet. He shoved it out the way and caught her as she tried to run past him down the stairs. "Now now, I don't think you of all people should be running down those."

Pansy laughed as he grabbed her to stop her from bolting down the stairs in front of him, which would have totally meant she technically beat him into the secret passage, which totally meant in her mind that she'd beat him to their destination and won. Yep. "Alright, alright. Maybe you have a point." Deciding for once to listen to him, she waited until he'd pulled the cupboard nearly into place again before slipping her hand into his and going down the stairs guided by the light from his wand. "Thank goodness it's not too much longer until I'm seventeen as well and can use magic outside of school." It really bothered her to not be able to do something as simple as lumos without getting into trouble for it. She tugged the doors of the cabinet open and headed inside to the room, leaving her shoes somewhere by the door and dropping onto the couch, sinking into the well worn cushions. "I wish I'd thought to bring a change of clothes so I wouldn't have to be stuck in this dress, but at least it's sort of comfy too."

Draco grinned as she took his hand and he lit his want to guide them down again. "Poor little kitten can't see in the dark." He smirked at her pulled off his jacket, tossing it over the other couch and dropping onto the couch next to her, "This is a great couch, way better than those ones in the common room." He turned to look at her sitting there next to him, "You look beautiful tonight." He loosened his tie and kicked off his shoes. Propping his feet up on the table he pulled out his cufflinks and dropped them on the floor next to his shoes. Leaning back he turned to smile at her, "Much better."

Pansy had narrowed her eyes at his kitten comment. He'd always done that, and she couldn't even remember when or how it'd started, but somehow he'd taken to referring to her as kitten on certain occasions, and though she told both him and herself that she didn't like it, somewhere deep down there, she really did. Not that she'd ever admit that. "Cats actually have very good eyesight in the dark, thanks." Pansy looked over at him as he sat next to her, watching him pull off his shoes and loosen his tie, she got this weird feeling she'd been somewhere just like this before. She was so stuck on trying to think of it, that she didn't realize she hadn't yet answered him. And then she figured it out. Fourth year, Yule Ball, when they'd run all the way back from the Great Hall to the common room, Pansy pulling the ribbon from her hair, Draco shedding his jacket and tugging loose his tie as soon as he could, their hair both in a mess, collapsing laughing onto the couch. The night she'd fallen in love with him. And here he was, looking much the same but quite a bit more grown up three years later. And here she was, falling for him all over again, as if it was all just that easy.

Draco reached over and ran a finger down her arm, "Hello Pansy, anyone there?" He chuckled and ran a hand through his hair not really caring how it looked with her. His other hand went up to his collar and undid another button on his shirt, "I never miss dressing up for dinner, that's for sure. Why do my parents always insist? It's not as though you've not seen us without dress robes." He flopped over and dropped his head into her lap, "I've missed this." He took her hand but didn't immediately move it to his hair, instead he held onto it, enjoying the small contact between them.

Pansy blinked as his finger moved on her arm, bringing her back to reality again. "Sorry." She pulled her legs up onto the couch, tucking them at her side considering she couldn't just sit any old way in the dress she was wearing unless she wanted Draco looking at her panties again. Which, she didn't. "I think they just like the grandeur of it. And the fact that they know it intimidates me enough to make me behave. A rarity at your house, I think." She laughed, because they all knew it was true that Pansy had always acted up at the Malfoys, using it as an escape and place to be a little crazy. Of course it'd made Lucius hate her for it from the time she was six and had first gotten Draco into trouble, but they always had fun and Draco didn't seem to mind it too much. Smiling down at him as he rested his head on her lap, she let him take her hand. "I was wondering how long it'd be before I saw your head in my lap again. Knew you couldn't resist for too long."

Draco grinned up at her, "You behave? Dinner is most certainly the only time that has ever happened. I actually think at this point it almost amuses my mother." He reached up with the hand not holding hers and tugged on a lose strand of hair, "It's not my fault you have a ridiculously comfy lap and you're amazing at hair petting." He let go of her hand and shifted so he was lying more comfortably on the sofa, his feet sticking over the end. "Do you think we could steal that sofa from your library at home? The really big one that I actually fit on." He didn't like these odd length sofas where he had to stick his feet in the air on the arm, it wasn't very comfortable and it looked silly.

"Well that would explain her random smiles while eating soup and watching me answer your father quite politely, if I do say so myself." Pansy laughed at the idea of her behaving amusing his mother. It probably did though, they all knew she had to be forced or intimidated into such behavior. "Well, we could steal it, but then what would we sit on at my house?" After he'd let go of her hand, her fingers went reflexively toward his hair, brushing it lightly to the side as she glanced around the room. "There's space for a bigger one though. Couldn't we use an engorgio or something and make it larger? And of course by we, I mean you, Mr. Legal Wizard."

Draco relaxed back as her fingers carded through his hair. This was what he had really missed, not their conversations or anything. Just this. "Well I would but I'm not sure how the sofa would do. It's at almost an optimal comfort right now and I don't want to fuck that up." His eyes moved to the other sofa, "Though we can always test it on that one, it wasn't as comfy when I sat on it so we can always try it out on that one." He pulled his wand out of the pocket of his trousers, "So you think engorgio would work? I can't decided between that and transfiguration."

Pansy nodded, deciding they might as well test the theory on the less comfortable couch. She wished she could do it herself, but knew that being expelled from school for the sake of making a couch a little larger would not go over well with her parents. "Engorgio is probably alright so long as you concentrate on making it longer rather than just puffier." She stopped playing with his hair so that he could pay attention to what he was doing, and wouldn't end up suffocating them by making the couch as big as the room so that it crushed their lungs and they died a horrible undiscovered death in a cabinet behind a cupboard in a hidden place of Malfoy Manor. That would be rather tragic, really, death by couch engorgio.

That might actually be rather hysterical if that was how they died. Together forever, Draco getting his hair petted through all of eternity. He sat up when she took her hands off his hair and faced the sofa, "Engorgio" He watched as it slowly expanded, rather pleased to see the pillows didn't become any thinner as it stretched. Getting up he smiled at her and walked over to the other sofa and dropped down onto it. "Hmm, not bad. It's no comfier than before but I think the charm worked." He cocked his head and shifted a little, "Yeah, I think so." He looked back at her and patted the space next to him, "C'mere."

Pansy watched as his charm worked quite successfully, the couch expanding lengthwise and not altering too terrible in any other ways. Good, they wouldn't die by couch, because regardless of them being together forever, Pansy would much prefer not to die by furniture if at all possible. She got up when he asked her to, taking a seat beside him. "I never sat on it before so I can't really compare, but it's not bad, I suppose." She wished once again that she could use magic herself to fix up the cushions a bit or something, but at least in eleven days she would be able to do whatever she liked. Finally.

He looked across the room at the other sofa, "Should I do it?" He eyed it up and raised his wand. If he fucked this up then he was actually going to exchange the couch for the one at the Parkinson's so he guessed it wasn't that big of a problem. Maybe. Casting the spell he watched carefully and stopped it when it was long enough for him to completely stretch out on with some space to spare. Grinning at her he took her hand, "Moment of truth."

Pansy laughed and let him pull her up and back to the other couch once again. She flopped down on it, sinking into the cushions just like before. It seemed like he'd done the charm just fine and the couch had simply expanded to be a little longer so that his feet wouldn't have to hang off any more. "Well, it feels the same to me. So unless it's going to implode later on and suck us down into the couch cushions and never let us escape, I think we'll be okay. Though, I'm not sure how you've been doing in charms class. If you're rotten at charms, who knows what this couch could do given a little time. I'll never forgive you if this couch eats my dress, you know." She laughed at him, waiting for the inevitable his head returning to her lap.

He laughed at her and dropped his head back into her lap, "Don't worry, the couch shouldn't eat your dress. If it does then I'm betting it's something my great-grandfather did to it... or it could just like the fabric." He smirked up at her and turned onto his side, wrapping an arm around her with his head still in her lap. "I'm glad you're here with me, I can't imagine sharing this room with anyone else."

Pansy smiled down at him. "Yeah, Astoria would probably complain about it being dirty down here, which it is, but that doesn't matter, and Blaise wouldn't be playing with your hair. Er, at least I hope not. I'm not sure just how close you two might be." She gave him a calculating look for a moment before her smile returned and her fingers moved lightly over his hair as they had before. "What if your great-grandfather did girl proof it though. What if the room is calculating my demise..." She glanced around at the walls, as if they were conspiring against her, before she looked down at him again and whispered. "... at this very moment."

He smiled at her and put his hand up against her cheek, "If the whole room was conspiring against you I would whisk you away and make sure that you were safe from my evil woman-fearing great grandfather." He looked up at her as she ran her fingers of his hair and slowly he sat up slightly, giving her a second to pull away, before he kissed her, his hand still resting on her cheek, his other moving to the couch next to her hip to prop himself up.

Without thinking about it, she leaned her cheek into his hand, smiling a little as he said he'd keep her safe. She blinked in surprise as he moved, taking a breath when he paused just in front of her face. But she knew what he was thinking and she couldn't move away, not after all they'd finally said and decided and after her post-dinner messy hair realization. She really wasn't over him, even if she had been momentarily or if she'd only been fooling herself the entire time. She let her eyes fall closed as his lips came up to meet hers, pressing back lightly. Again, this was different than before, different from the one in the kitchen which was too full of confusion, different from the one before that which was too full of anger, different from the first one that was too full of false hopes. This one was different yet again, and she liked it.

He kissed her for another few seconds before pulling back, this was the most uncomfortable position ever. He sat up properly and grinned at her before standing up then settling back down next to her so he could actually put his arms around her. He pulled her into a hug for a moment before kissing her again. She felt perfect with him, everything felt just as it should be and he leaned in a little closer to her, feeling the silk of her dress against his arms and the softness of her hair against his fingertips. Though when she had first asked him that question he had worried that it would lead to another fight and even more of a mess now he was so glad that she did and he couldn't imagine a better way for them to spend their evening.

Pansy laughed when he sat up, glad that he did because that had probably been the most awkward position ever. She kissed him back lightly, still quite skittish about the entire situation. Not that she was unsure any longer, just that she didn't want to have it all fall apart again, not when it truly seemed like they would be able to try and make it work this time. She leaned into his arms, her hand resting on his side as she continued to kiss him, not worrying about thinking anything for once, just kissing him and pressing her lips almost nervously to his.

He smoothed a hand over her hair then pulled back slightly to look at her, she looked beautiful tonight, even though he preferred her without the makeup and without her hair all coiffed he still enjoyed it when she was dressed up. After another quick kiss he moved them around slightly so that he could hold her better. He leaned in and kissed the edge of her lips, then smiling at her he shifted so she could rest her head on his shoulder. His fingers moved absentmindedly through the ends of her hair and relaxed into the couch, not wanting to really say anything, just enjoying the moment with her in this special place.

Pansy smiled back at him when he pulled away, laughing as he kissed her twice more even while they rearranged themselves on the couch. She leaned into him and put her head on his shoulder. She relaxed into the couch and wrapped her hand gently around his arm, her eyelids dropping shut as he played with her hair. It was quiet, but it was nice, the two of them able to just sit in the silence and enjoy it, not feeling like they need to talk about anything for once. Just basking in the fact that they were finally able to step away from it all enough to see that they can't be happy without each other, enough to realize they might as well just give it a try. She never thought she'd find herself in this situation, essentially dating Draco Malfoy and hanging out at his house with him. Sure, maybe they wouldn't get to stay together after school, but for now she was glad to have him and she knew would enjoy it while she could.

He felt her relaxing against him, and he wanted to sink further into the sofa and fall asleep but they still didn't know if elves could find them down there and he didn't want to risk his parents not finding them in the morning. He stopped running his hands over her hair and gently shifted so that he could tip up her chin, "We can't go to sleep down here, we'll have to go up to bed." He waited for her to lift her head off his shoulder before he moved away from her and got up. He helped her up off the sofa and gave her another soft kiss before picking up his shoes, tie and cufflinks and siding his jacket over her shoulders. He pushed open the cupboard doors and let her walk past him before lighting his wand to walk up the stairs with her.