Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me.

II

serpentine

They sat across the Common Room from each other. He sat on the fringes of Malfoy's sycophants, almost a part but just far enough to prevent association. She was near the fire, textbooks discarded in a haphazard pile because no Slytherin would be seen actually studying, not listening to Daphne Greengrass prattle on about some dim-witted Hufflepuff.

Pansy moved her head fractionally; just enough to shift inky locks over parchment skin and expose the pale column of her throat. Theodore turned, chartreuse eyes half-lidded, and inclined his head in her direction.

They gave their apologies to their respective groups, Malfoy dismissing him with barely a wave and Daphne merely shifting a little to her left to continue on to Millicent Bulstrode. They met halfway, turning as one to exit the Common Room. He took her books and held them casually as they walked, strides synched and arms brushing with each step that took them farther and farther away from their peers and closer and closer to their destination.

By the time they'd made it to the Room of Requirement, Pansy's hand was innocently tucked into the left back pocket of Theodore's trousers, the only visible link between him and her.

They vanished into the Room without incident and the books spilled to the floor like a verbose waterfall. Her ivory fingers tipped with delicately shaped nails twined with his burnished gold fingers that ended in blunt, coarse fingertips, touching so softly as if to be skin-starved. Her lips parted, perhaps to allow his name to slip out, but he silenced her confession that might have been with butterfly kisses that he dribbled down her throat.

She tightened her grip on his tie like it was a noose and she was his executioner and he gasped out his final prayers as she devoured his sins with her teeth and tongue and lips until he was empty and she had filled him to the brim with emotion.

And then he would worship her like she was his goddess and he had made it his mission to map every inch of her with everything but his eyes.

They weren't friends. They weren't enemies. They weren't betrothed. They were Pansy and Theodore and they were an enigma and yet something so basic that everyone who witnessed it could recognize the sensation, if not the name.

They were everything and nothing to each other and they knew it and didn't care.

A/N: Part dos. As you can see, it's a bit earlier in the timeline, assuming that the first one was post-Hogwarts year. This would probably be mid-seventh year because I'm not entirely comfortable with even insinuating sex scenes between minors (17-year-olds still count as minors).

Beta'd by Haz (Ha'niqua) who did notice that I changed tenses like four times.

Thanks, as always, for reading and reviewing! :]

Roma