Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters you may recognize from the wonderful world of Harry Potter, they all belong to the revered JK Rowling; I just like to play with them a little.
THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
THE DARE
Draco glanced around with an air of boredom. These parties were all the same and were beginning to be dreaded, rather than enjoyed. It was always the same people who attended: those not invited to the more prestigious Ministry events. They had started out as an effort to thumb their noses at the Ministry and their foolish policy about not indulging those of a once questionable background, but the shine had long since worn off. Nowadays, they were just poor excuses to come together and drink far too much Firewhisky, so that one woke up the following morning with no memory of the evening before.
Dissatisfied with the whole situation, yet unwilling to do anything to remedy his mood, Draco downed another tumbler of Odgen's best and placed his empty glass on the table for refilling. After all, erasing the memory was what he had come for.
Blaise Zabini raised a questioning eyebrow at his friend. "Quite intent on wiping yourself out tonight, aren't you?"
"There's nothing else to do," Draco snarled, his temper beginning to fray.
"Why don't you go find yourself something to occupy your mind before you become incapable?" Blaise suggested with a hint of a smirk.
Draco cast his eyes around the room disdainfully. "I've shagged every last one of them and not one of them enticed me to go back for seconds."
"Maybe so, but it's far better than spending the evening conversing with your hand," Blaise pointed out.
The blond wizard snorted derisively. "I think I'd rather use my hand than waste my time on any of those-" His words dried up as a group of women entered the room. They were dressed for a ball, so he assumed they'd come from the Ministry Christmas Ball. "Well, well, well."
"Perhaps your hand will have some company tonight," Blaise whispered in his friend's ear.
Draco smirked wickedly. "Indeed."
The two men sat back and admired the new women from afar as they began to mingle with the partygoers. Both liked to examine what was on offer first, and then make their move. There were some older women, who were instantly struck from contention merely on their age - the men did have some scruples - and there one or two unfortunate looking women, who might have looked acceptable had they had more to drink. In the end, there were only a couple of possibilities.
"I'm going after that one," Blaise said, pointing to a young woman with long dark hair, who looked as though she'd only just finished Hogwarts the summer before.
"Too young," Draco mumbled.
"Never too young." Blaise grinned nefariously. "What about that one?"
Draco frowned and tried to follow where Blaise was pointing. "Which one?"
"Over there." Blaise tossed his head in the general direction of a group of women. "Green frock, thin, long legs… red hair."
"That is a Weasley," Draco pointed out firmly. "Do you not remember that family?"
"Mmm…"
"Dirt poor, freckles everywhere-"
"Well, we don't know if they have freckles everywhere."
Draco pulled a face at his friend. Even though he enjoyed the sport of bedding women, there were boundaries that even he wouldn't cross. "We don't want to know."
"I dare you to find out," Blaise challenged mischievously.
"Did you not hear me?" Draco growled. "I don't want to know."
Blaise shrugged nonchalantly. "I do, and I'm daring you to find out for me."
"You're not-" Draco stopped when he noted that his friend's expression was indeed serious, even if his eyes held a hint of mischief. "Fuck," he hissed.
"That's the idea."
"I have my standards, Zabini."
"Let's have a look at the check list then, shall we?" Blaise made a show of holding on of his hand in front of him with the palm facing up and positioning his other hand over it with this index finger hovering just above his palm like a quill. "Attractive."
"If you fancy red hair and freckles," Draco muttered as Blaise's finger made an invisible tick on his hand.
"Shaggable." Blaise added another tick to his palm, ignoring Draco's protest. "Is there anything else you need?"
"She's a Weasley!"
Blaise shrugged. "So close your eyes and call her `Sweetheart'."
"She'll never go for it," Draco pointed out, thinking he would be able to get out of the dare on that premise, considering everything else had failed.
"Take a look at her."
Draco looked at her just in time to see her stagger backwards a little.
"She's already half done. Another few drinks and she'll be anyone's."
"Not all women are like that."
"I'll bet she is."
"What makes you say that?"
"I know you remember her from Hogwarts. Do you recall her reputation?"
"As a cock-tease?"
"If she was that hot to trot at school, there's no way she's still pure."
"She could be," Draco answered, knowing very well it was a weak argument. Every male student at Hogwarts knew that Ginevra Weasley was a sure thing for a good snog in their years at the educational institute.
"Are you taking the dare or not?"
"What choice do I have?"
"You could opt out."
"I remember the alternative too well," Draco replied acerbically. It was a childish game they'd played since before he could remember, and he'd only once refused a dare, because the alternative - a more than healthy dose of Veritaserum, so he wouldn't be able to lie - was too revealing.
"In that case, why don't I go and start to soften her up a bit," Blaise suggested nefariously, pouring a fresh tumbler of Firewhisky and topping his own off.
"I have rules about shagging someone who's comatose," Draco reminded him.
"Don't worry, mate, I'll make sure she can still scream your name." Blaise winked at the blond before striding across the room.
Draco sat back and watched his alleged friend ply the redhead with well-aged Firewhisky. He saw her face flicker with recognition, and then a rather false smile stretched her lips. Quite obviously, she remembered Blaise. Just as he thought he might actually get out of the dare due to her refusal to `play' the game, she giggled lightly, and the speciousness of her expression morphed into one of genuine delight. Profanities were filtering through his mind, but remained unvoiced for the time being. When Blaise slipped his arm around her, and began to lead her in his direction, Draco knew the game was afoot.
"You remember my friend, Draco, don't you?" Blaise said by way of introduction.
"How could I forget him," she answered.
Draco eyed her with interest as he sipped his Firewhisky. Her voice, while she wasn't quite slurring, sounded thick and unnatural. That aside, she had grown into quite an attractive woman, not that it enticed him to want to shag her at all, because she was still a Weasley. "Weasley," he drawled, allowing a hint of a playful smirk to grace his lips.
"Malfoy," she responded as she wobbled on her legs.
"I think you ought to sit down before you fall down," Blaise suggested, guiding Ginny to the couch beside Draco.
She immediately began to move away from the blond, but her progress was halted when Blaise dropped into the vacant position beside her, effectively trapping her between them.
Draco had to smother a snort of laughter as her expression tried to harden in Blaise's direction. She was far too inebriated for the look, which was probably deadly when she was sober, to hold any malice. "Don't worry, Weasley, you're safe with us," he assured her.
"I think I should find my friends," she said quickly, trying to extract herself from the sofa.
"Why don't we just sit here and see if we can spot any of them," Blaise suggested. "You know, I don't think I can see anyone you arrived with."
"Who are they anyway?" Draco asked feigning interest for the sake of conversation.
"Work colleagues," Ginny muttered as she scanned the crowd. "They're gone."
"Not to worry," Blaise said cheerily. "You can still have fun with us."
Ginny shook her head emphatically. "No, I should go."
"Nonsense, there's no reason for you to leave," Blaise countered. "Draco and I have been looking for some intelligent conversation all evening."
Draco watched as she appeared to be waging some form of internal battle. He hoped, with everything he had, that she would decide to leave, so the dare would become void. As gentlemen, neither would stop her if she absolutely insisted on leaving. There was no fun in forcing a woman to do what she didn't want to do and, as such, they never did, or at least Draco never did, he wasn't entirely sure about Blaise, because he could be quite depraved at times. Her facial expressions were fascinating, and he could almost tell what side of the debate she was thinking about through them.
"You can't go yet!" Blaise insisted just after he topped off her glass. "You haven't finished your drink."
"Oh-I really shouldn't-"
"Rubbish! It's a party. Drink up," Blaise encouraged, taking a healthy mouthful of his own drink.
It really only took a few more minutes of encouragement before she appeared to settle in for the evening. At that point Draco had no choice but to join in the nonsensical conversation, so he could make a connection with the woman, before luring her into his bed. By the time Blaise gave him a sly wink as he slipped away from them to chase his own quarry, Draco had draped his arm over the chair above her shoulders, not that she'd noticed, and she was enraptured with him or so it seemed. He had a firm plan in place to prove he'd successfully completed the dare as well, because if Blaise didn't believe him there would be hell to pay.
"Those Ministry Balls are getting more and more boring," Ginny told him. "It's the same old fuddy duddies every time."
"Appalling," Draco answered.
"It would be-" She paused to take a large mouthful of Firewhisky. "-so much better if you lot could come."
"The Ministry doesn't like us," Draco conceded, smirking as her voice started to slur.
"They're all bonkers!"
"I agree," Draco whispered as he reached out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear, making certain to brush her cheek ever so gently with his fingertips. It was a measured move that had always proven successful in the past.
"You have the most amazing eyes," Ginny whispered, before looking utterly shocked with herself.
"So do you," Draco returned in a husky voice. "They're so warm."
A blush crept up her face and she cast her eyes to her lap. "Thank you."
Draco smirked, before gently placing a finger under her chin and raising her head so he could look into her eyes. "You're welcome," he whispered a mere fraction of a second before his lips brushed hers.
When she didn't push him away, he brought his other arm around her, pulling her against his chest and engaging her lips once again, but this time in a more determined manner. He smirked against her mouth when she responded immediately, and then set about seeking permission to deepen the kiss. There was to be no disappointment this evening as she allowed his tongue to dance with hers and even moaned into his mouth when he stroked her tongue with his. In the next half an hour words had become an ancient form of communication for the pair as they tasted and tempted each other. Draco could feel himself getting worked up, but squashed the feelings, harshly reminding himself that he had a plan and that it most definitely didn't include losing control.
"I think we should find somewhere a little more private," Draco whispered in her ear as her hands started to tug at his shirt.
"Where?"
"Just hang on," he instructed softly. Thankful that he'd at least watched the amount of alcohol he was consuming from the moment the dare had been laid, Draco confidently Side-Along Disapparated with the now wanton witch.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
He groaned and rolled over, draping an arm over the other body in his bed. She was sound asleep and he planned to join her in just a few seconds. Draco didn't think he'd ever felt so satisfied or exhausted, and it was all due to someone he'd never ordinarily consider touching. Who knew she could be so wicked in bed?
Of course, the fact that he had never meant to shag her was irrelevant now, but still the fact remained - he had not meant for things to go as far as they did. He'd had a plan to save himself touching the Weasley any more than necessary, but it had gone astray the moment he discovered she wasn't wearing the knickers he'd planned to steal to prove his virility to Blaise. Just the sight of her lying on his bed, completely naked, sent a large surge of alcohol fueled blood directly to his groin, and he'd had his wicked way with her for several hours.
Sleep now… Shag her again when I've got more energy, he ruminated as his conscious thoughts faded to fuzzy fragments and sleep began to claim him in earnest.
Several things raced through Draco's startled mind as he was torn from a deep slumber by a piercing scream and a blast of freezing cold air as the bedcovers were ripped from his body. The first was someone was being murdered; the second was that it might have been he who was getting murdered. Through bleary eyes and the hangover hell, Draco tried to figure out what was going on.
Weasley was standing beside the bed shrieking like a banshee with the blankets and sheets clutched to her like some form of security blanket.
"Come back to bed, woman, and for Merlin's sake shut up," Draco moaned as he reached for the distraught witch, intent on gathering her back to him and stealing some body heat.
It was precisely at that moment that Draco realized he'd made a tactical error. Her shrieking increased to the point where he thought it was quite possible that his ears might start bleeding. With his patience running low, and his head ready to split, Draco clambered from the bed to stand in front of her.
"Weasley, calm down," he pleaded.
Draco jumped back as she flung her hand at his groin, but then realized she was merely trying to block her view of the area. It seemed his naked form was a great deal of her problem, or at least he hoped it might be as he scrambled around trying to find where she'd flung his boxers. After a few minutes he located his underwear, and then took several attempts at getting them on, almost falling over a number of times.
The moment his manhood was covered her caterwauling calmed back down to head-splitting shrieking, which was far better than the ear-bleeding punishment she had been dealing him. With caution uppermost in his mind, Draco approached her slowly, muttering calming words and hoping she wouldn't strike out at him. He felt like simply shoving her out the door and climbing back into his bed with the pillow secured around his head to block out the noise, but when a woman woke up screaming like she was a move like that could be potentially problematic. There was only one option open to him at this point: calm her down.
He didn't know if it was his words or if she was simply running out of breath - the latter seemed more likely, because he doubted she was registering his voice - but she began to lower her volume gradually. Draco relaxed when she stopped to heave a few deep breaths into her lungs. At least they would be able to talk reasonably now.
"How could you?"
Draco's eyes snapped up, but before he began to splutter indignantly his brain engaged its self-preservation mode. "You weren't complaining last night," he drawled. "That is if you don't count: faster, harder or fuck me now."
"I-you-you sodding prick."
"Now come on, love, that wasn't what you were calling me last night," Draco crooned, rather enjoying the way the color rose from her chest and flooded her face. "You enjoyed it, Weasley," he teased with a wicked smirk.
"I was drunk."
"That doesn't change the fact that you enjoyed every last minute of it, every single time." Draco reached to stroke her cheek with his fingers, but she slapped his hand away. "You even told me I had an amazing cock."
Her embarrassment slid from her features in a second and her eyes grew wide. "You can't tell anyone about this."
"Why not?" Draco asked with a sneer, keeping up with her change of mood easily. If there was one thing he detested, it was being told what he could and could not do.
"Malfoy, think about it logically for a minute," Ginny pleaded. "Our families would kill us."
"That doesn't scare me," Draco scoffed.
Ginny quirked an eyebrow at him and her eyes danced with mischief. "I have six older, big brothers who would take pleasure in making your death as long and painful as they could, and believe me, they're very creative."
"Yes, well- perhaps a vow of silence would be a good idea to protect both of us," Draco agreed. There was no way he wanted to come into contact with any of her brothers, especially if they knew what he'd been up to with their baby sister.
"Good," she snapped. "If you say anything to anyone, I will hunt you down and hurt you."
Draco opened his mouth to respond haughtily, but his reply loitered on his tongue as she scooped up her belongings and all but ran from his room. After the door had slammed shut Draco ran a hand through his hair and let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. He looked around the room and realized that apart from the bedclothes that were missing it was as if she'd never been here, and then he cursed loudly. Blaise would never believe he'd been successful without some form of trophy, and she'd taken off with all her clothes. Somehow, he just didn't think that his friend would believe that Miss Innocent Weasley forewent underwear.
With little else to do, and still in desperate need of sleep, Draco dropped back onto the bed. He immediately noticed that the bottom sheet and pillow she'd slept on smelled like her. If he could get Blaise over here soon enough he could prove his success, but he'd worry about that after he'd caught up on some much needed sleep.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Written for ericahpfa for the dgficexchange. Tied for Funniest Fic Overall!
Thanks to Rainpuddle13 for her wonderful beta skills!
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