Keeping hold of the Towel

Summary: When Draco Malfoy is kissed by someone in disguise he is determined to find out who the bastard is. At least it would keep his mind off Potter. And other matters. But mostly Potter. 8th year Hogwarts. HPDM

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, all characters belong to the brilliant J.K. Rowling

Reviews of any kind are most appreciated. Thank You for reading, enjoy!

Prologue

Draco Malfoy was sure that the person in front of him, wearing Pansy's robes, looking at him out of Pansy's brown eyes was in fact not Pansy Parkinson.

In hindsight there had been several signs, he thought. Like how Pansy'd stormed off after Transfiguration and then walked in at lunch, their dispute entirely forgotten. Draco had almost choked on his Pumpkin Juice when she'd grinned at him without a trace of malice. Really, he had expected to get silent treatment at least until Thursday, when she probably would remember their friendship in need to, once again, copy his Arithmancy assignment. Or when she didn't jump at her favourite Kidney Pie, but instead ate not one, not two but four whole Treacle Tarts, even delightedly licking her fingers afterwards, when Draco had never seen her look at anything sweet with more than disgust before. Or her sudden need to rifle through her bag, deliberately falling behind him on the way to their Common Room, only resulting in her casually pulling out the newest issue of Witch Weekly in front of a snickering group of 4th year students. As far as he knew Pansy had intended to take the knowledge, that she still read that gruesome magazine way further than only to her grave.

By then Draco had suspected. But he knew this couldn't possibly be Pansy Parkinson the moment they'd passed the entrance to their Common Room when she spun him around, took his face in her hands, a dazzling smile in place that he never thought Pansy's mouth could even perform and pulled him in for a kiss.

Pansy. Fucking. Kissing. Him.

"Wh..."

He was too gobsmacked to push her away at once, his eyes going round with disbelief, as he stared at Pansy's closed eyes, while she was pressing her lips to his. It was not a sight he had ever wanted to witness. And certainly not up close.

Noticing Draco's lack of response she slowly let him go. He could see her eyebrows wrinkling in confusion as she took a step back, probably wondering if she had made a mistake, instead of assuring him he was in fact with his girlfriend, who loved to snog him, if one believed Hogwarts' rumour mill.

"Draco…?" Pansy's voice spoke softly and Draco could feel his anger rising. Just who was this obnoxious idiot who thought she could play him for a fool? Not to mention that awful picture of Pansy kissing him, that occupied his mind now, making him regret the choice of having eaten lunch.

"Why, Pansy, I never knew you to be so needy", he sneered at last. He saw her eyes covertly dart to the entrance of the Common Room and in one swift motion he was on her, holding her in place with his left hand on her back, while he inconspicuously searched for his wand with his right.

Draco leaned down, his breath tickling her ear as he whispered: "If you wish, I am quite happy to take this somewhere private."

"I...uh...", she swallowed audibly, fidgeting in his grasp.

"What's the matter?" Draco could feel her freeze as his hand slowly crept up her back, keeping her in check. "Pansy?" The musky scent of her hair seemed familiar, but thankfully didn't fit Pansy at all and helped calm his stomach a little. Though he'd still need a Pensieve after this.

He slowly drew his wand, just as two girls entered the Common room, the incantation for the Body-Bind Curse on the tip of his tongue.

"Petrificus to-"

"Expelliarmus!"

Shocked Draco threw his head around and followed the decent of his wand as it flew, spiralling through the air, hitting some 1st year in the back of the head before finally disappearing under the table. He felt the air pressed out of his lungs as Pansy pushed at him and all he could do was watch the figure whirl around and sprint for the exit, as he lost his fight for balance and tumbled to the ground.

"Stop her!", he cried, but the students, startled by his outburst only blinked and turned around in confusion, as Pansy disappeared into the dark corridors of the dungeons, leaving Draco sitting on the floor of the Slytherin Common room. He bit his lips to stop himself from cursing and groaned. His lips still tasted like bloody Treacle Tarts.

Draco could feel a well-known headache coming, as he woke up the next day. Debating whether he should get up or just skip, he sat up moaning softly before slowly making his way to the shower. The water made him feel somewhat better, but he'd still rather downed an ounce of Dreamless Potion and fallen back into bed.

"Get a grip, Draco", he muttered, stopping himself from furiously scrubbing at his left underarm. He sighed and rubbed his tired eyes instead. He supposed he should be glad it'd only been the Fiendfyre this time. Even featuring Potter coming to his rescue, instead of dying in the flames. That was progress. Probably.

Someone banged loudly on the door. "Draco, stop styling your hair already", he could hear Pansy's voice through the wood and he hastily ripped his eyes open to focus on a particularly interesting bathroom tile, as the image of her kissing him tried to return. He'd ultimately found the real Pansy (locked in a broom closet on the first floor, cursing and pounding furiously at the spell-locked door, her wand right outside her cosy prison), but as she couldn't remember anything except suddenly feeling awfully tired on her way to the Great Hall, that didn't help much with unravelling, well, anything about The Incident, as he liked to call it.

"I'm hungry, hurry up already", she was whining now and grudgingly Draco straightened his clothes, grabbed his wand and bag and threw open the door.

Pansy was looking at him dismissively.

"I really don't know why you bother with our agreement, Pansy, when just your whining is enough to keep all the boys far away from you. By their choice, that is", he said.

Pansy pursed her lips. "You're a git, you know that?", she replied as they made their way through the Common Room. They were late for breakfast, so it was empty, except for a scrawny boy in the corner, rigorously scribbling on some parchment. "You better be glad I'm putting up with you, instead of letting all of Hogwarts figure out that –"

Draco quickly clamped his hand over her mouth. He'd seen the boys hand stop and curiously turn his head in their direction. Slytherins were a nosy bunch, he thought wearily. Draco leaned in close, supposedly hugging Pansy and hissed: "Don't you dare finish that sentence, Parkinson."

He ushered her out of the entrance. "You do want to keep inconspicuously ogling Lisa Turpin's arse while pretending to be my girlfriend, do you not?" He grinned and closely avoided Pansy's hand that'd been aiming for his head, thus almost ruining his handiwork of this morning. "Stupid git", she snapped, her mouth pressed shut angrily.

They strode into the Great Hall side by side. A few heads still turned at their entrance, murmuring. Though their 'dating' was old news by now. The perpetrator of The Incident, must also take it for a fact, Draco mused, letting his gaze drag across the chatting crowd, as he found his usual seat at the Slytherin table.

Really, what had been her goal? He once again came to the conclusion that the whole thing didn't make much sense. The war was over. There were no secret plans of the Dark Lord that anyone could hope to pry from him any more. And what else could possibly justify using bloody Polyjuice Potion, sneaking into Slytherin and, worst of all, even kissing him to not blow her cover?

"You"ll get wrinkles", said Pansy, not even looking at him. "Just let it go." He watched her nibble on some bread and for a moment Draco wondered if maybe she'd been switched out again. Her suggestion was that ridiculous. He let her know by raising an eyebrow, looking at her incredulously.

Pansy sighed. "We've tried, Draco. But your only lead is a preference for sweets, some talent for duelling and," she smirked, "the smell of her hair. I guess you don't want to go sniffing every Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor's head, do you?" An evil glint in her eye, she added "And don't forget the teachers."

Draco slowly put his butter roll back on his plate. "It's not a teacher", he said then. "The teachers know the passwords to the Common Rooms. She obviously didn't." Although he was quite sure of this, the notion that he may have been kissed by Professor Sprout was enough to make him blanch.

Pansy shrugged. "So even if it's not a teacher, there are hundreds of students. Don't get me wrong, I certainly want to hex the bitch that got me stuck in that broom closet, but I know when to throw the towel."

Draco looked at her. "What towel?"

"It means giving up", Pansy admitted, looking as if she'd just swallowed Murtlap Essence. Or Treacle Tarts. "We're covering proverbs in Muggle Studies."

Draco felt the corner of his mouth twitch. "Fascinating", he replied, fetching the Daily Prophet from his owl to hide his smirk.

"Oh, shut up." Pansy muttered annoyed. She remained silent as he scanned the paper. He'd known by the throbbing of his head that it was going to be a lousy day and, of course, there was a picture of Potter on the second page. His tousled hair had been styled into a deliberate mess, casually displaying the famous scar. He was also happily smiling up at him, which was new.

Draco put the Daily Prophet down, leaving the paper wrinkled, as he firmly closed his hand around it. Without consciously choosing to, his eyes easily found the black mob of hair in the crowd. Potter was talking to the She-Weasley sitting to his right, looking flustered. But then, he probably would be too, if the Daily Prophet had just announced his engagement.

"I'll find the fool", he said then, suddenly desperate to have his mind focus on something else. "One does not try to trick a Malfoy and hope to get away with it." And as he fell into bed that day, having spent every free second on working out his brilliant plan, Draco was proud that his mind only now wandered back to Potter.