Is That A Blue Streak...?

AN: I was reading an ingenious fic (Just A Random Tuesday (go check it out!)) when this struck me, then I Googled what Daphne Greengrass looked like and got this fan-art pic of her with blonde hair and blue highlights, and along came the title. Honestly, the places you get inspiration from... :P
My first Draco/Daphne, so please go easy on me :)
ENJOY! R&R&R&R&R&R&R&R&R&R&R&R!

It was mildly amusing, he had to admit. Normally Severus Snape didn't make a habit out of listening in on his students squabble, but considering none of those irritating hell-sent Gryffindors were involved, he could make an exception. What was fascinating about this particular...conflict was that, despite his almost bat-like hearing abilities, he could only make out a few words from the screaming Slytherins.

"You insufferable git-" She spat.

"Blonde bimbet!" He retaliated.

"Look who's talking!"

"I AM! What are you blind now?!"

"It's quite possible that having to see you everyday has made me lose my eye-sight!"

"Yes, because you're the most fun thing to look at." Sarcasticness, he learnt that from his Godfather.

"I know I am! Which is a hell of a lot more than I can say for you!"

"Why don't you just go spend hours crying over a broken nail?"

"Why don't you just go cry to Parkinson about what a prick your father is?"

They noses were practically touching now, well, if Daphne Greengrass was as tall as Draco Malfoy, and not a head shorter, then maybe their noses would be touching. But somehow she still managed to look him straight in the eye.

"Because one Parkinson is a pathetic slobbering idiot, and two, I never complain about my father because I know that no matter how he treats anyone in his path, everyone else has worse fathers. And I'm above crying."

Daphne hesitated for a moment before firing back. "Well then why don't you go book your mother a slot in the Mental Clinic? I'm sure St. Mungo's don't mind dealing with Death Eaters."

The entire Potions class had been listening in earnest by now, and that last comment had everyone jerk back and gasp. It even had Snape reeling, that was just going too far. For him, it wasn't so much the Death Eater comment, as that was what had everyone else shocked, but it was more the 'mental' part of it. Who was she to go around calling people as superior and beautiful as Narcissa Malfoy even slightly mentally incapable?

Okay, so maybe he was slightly biased, he had been in love with Narcissa for years now, but still, Daphne had no right.

"You pathetic, good-for-nothing, useless little -"

Now Snape had had enough.

"SHUT IT! You will all return to your seats, continue on with your work and you will most certainly not utter a single word to each other for the rest of the lesson."

Blaise raised his hand.

"Zabini?"

"May I just point out that it was you who put us in partners with...them." Blaise glared distastefully at the red-headed Gryffindor beside him.

"Professor Dumbledore it promoting...house unity or some such thing, as such, he has requested that all teachers pair their students up with people of preferably the opposite house."

"So why does Draco get to go with Daphne?" That would be the high and incredibly annoying voice of Pansy Parkinson, and sure enough, Draco Malfoy and Daphne Greengrass were the only ones in the entire class who were paired up with someone in the same house as theirs.

"I'm sure it is beyond your skill to notice, Parkinson," Snape sneered, "but if you ever counted, you would come to find that there are two more Slytherins in this year then Gryffindors. Malfoy and Greengrass were randomly picked students, it had nothing to do with anything. Now, as you were." Snape looked away, desperately trying to fight off a smirk.

There was in fact a reason that those two Slytherins were paired together, not that he would ever admit to it. He had overheard McGonagall, Vector and Sinistra going on about some crush of some sort going on between Draco and Daphne, and deciding he would do some experimenting of his own, he paired them together to see what would happen. And sure enough, he got his answer. They were most definitely in love with each other, no one else in the entire history of the world could possibly insult each other like that and still have the guts to continue on with it. If they weren't already a couple, they soon would be.

It was just plain obvious.

-XX-

It was surprising, I had to admit. I never thought he was capable of such care and devotion. He always seemed so cold, not exactly heartless, more like he was unaware that he had a heart. He ignored almost everyone, insulted everyone else. I was one of the few who could last hours with him without ending up in tears, mostly because I hurt him as much as he hurt me, and that was enough to get me through the nights.

For DADA, Dumbledore, who I used to have a hell of a lot more respect for, paired us up for a new little experiment. He called it 'Preparing for the future'. And of course me and Draco were together. The point of the experiment was basically to be paired with someone of the opposite sex, pretend like you're living two decades into the future with children and elderly parents, and the world is still infested with Death Eaters and all sorts of dark beings. And basically, you practically have to live together over the winter holidays, you have to take care of your fake children, you have to visit your parents a lot more and you have to fend off random evil spirits that Dumbledore throws at you out of nowhere.

In short, it was a ridiculous task, one that unfortunately counted for a quarter of our final DADA grade. So we all had to do it. We were about a week and a half into our Christmas Holidays, and already we've faced off three beings of the night, let one of our 'daughter's' get raped, watched our fake son die and we've almost killed each other about five times. It's been fun. Only not. So now, we'd gone to the Malfoy Manor to visit Narcissa, the same woman who I'd called a few weeks earlier 'mentally unstable', it was a strange experience. I learnt a lot of things that day, Narcissa was a lot of things, fragile, gentle, caring, calm, controlled, but she was most definitely not mentally or otherwise unstable in anyway. And had I not known better, I would've refused to believe she was a Death Eater. But she was, and I knew it, it sort of made it hard for me not to be...wary of her. I mean, she could turn around and kill me in a heartbeat and wouldn't even feel guilty about it because she'd done it dozens of times before. But the more she smothered me, the more she fawned over me, the more biscuits and hot chocolate she got me, the less worried I got about being in her presence. She was actually pretty okay, well, better than okay. She was amazing. How had Draco turned out the way he had with her as a mother? That question was answered the second his father showed up.

The first sign of his arrival was a little elf scuttling into the room and standing by the armchair of Narcissa's chair. She was in the middle of re-telling some adorable story about Draco as a toddler when the house-elf arrived. I learned later her name was Penny. She waited patiently until Narcissa was done before speaking.

"Madam, Master Malfoy has arrived. Teddy is removing the charms, he shall be here in 5 minutes." See, the Malfoys had put up a huge bunch of charms up on the house, this was to keep out unwanted visitors. Namely, Ministry guys and everyone else who wasn't a Death Eater.

I could've almost sworn Narcissa looked...sad about the announcement. It would make sense if it were anyone else, but his own wife? Wasn't she supposed to be thrilled about her husband coming home or something?

"Very well, thank you, Penny. Will you go help Teddy, please? You know how Lucius gets when he's kept waiting." Narcissa glanced down at her fidgeting fingers, clearly uncomfortable.

Fear flashed through Penny's eyes and I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. The two elves guarding the door gulped rather audibly and Penny's shoulders hunched in a motion of terror. They were terrified of him, what did he do to them?

"Yes Madam, I'll just be on my way." Penny turned and practically ran out the door, yelling for Teddy to hurry up.

There was an uncomfortable silence before Draco finally thankfully broke it.

"Where was he?" He asked simply.

She took a deep breath. "I don't know. He didn't tell me. But I heard it had something to do with the Ministry. There's some...trouble. He's panicked, he has some work to be getting on with. You must not question him, Draco. He knows what he's doing, he's a grown man, he will not get into any trouble...again." She seemed to be convincing herself more than her son.

But Draco knew enough not to pester her. He turned to me.

"Any news from Kristen?" Kristen was one of our two fake daughters who we let get raped by her 'sister's' boyfriend.

"Nope, haven't seen her since the incident." He knew what I was referring to, he nodded and looked back at his mother.

There was silence again, but this time it wasn't very awkward, more like...settled. And then the doors opened and in came Lucius Malfoy.

"Hello dear." Narcissa got up as her husband neared her.

He kissed the top of her head, turned, nodded at Draco and headed for the door on his left.

"How was your day?" Narcissa called after him.

"Tiresome. Ken is causing problems again. We had Crabbe and Goyle deal with him." He said over his shoulder, he glanced at me, and apparently deciding I was harmless, reached for the the door-knob to what I assumed was his study.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Draco said before his father opened the door.

Lucius turned around and looked at his son with a controlled glare.

"It means that I had to do a lot of convincing today and I'm tired." He tone was warning, daring.

"Convincing to do what?" Draco challenged.

"Why do you care?" Lucius replied.

"Because I'd like to know when my father is in involved in mysterious Ministry deaths. Crabbe and Goyle were reluctant weren't they?"

"Draco..." Narcissa warned, her eyes were filled with worry, they were darting back and forth between her son and husband. Even I was starting to cower beneath the intensity of Lucius's stare.

"Well, never you mind. It's none of your business."

"Yes it is if I'm going to have to read about my father getting thrown back in Azkaban in the Daily Prophet." I had to admire Draco's will, his determination, he lack of fear of his father. I certainly would never be able to talk back to him like that. Unless of course he was just plain stupid.

"How dare you!" Lucius took three quick strides to Draco so that their noses were almost touching, only he was much taller.

"What are you going to do about it? Curse me? Torture me?" Draco's eyes blazed with an unfamiliar fire, I'd never seen him with his father before, I always thought they got along fine.

"You're forbidden from seeing her anymore." Lucius jerked his thumb towards me, my eyes widened. What the hell?

"We're here on a school project, father."

"Do you think I'm an idiot? I see what's going on here." Before waiting for any kind of response, Lucius turned in one swift stride and stormed back to his study, this time successfully opening the door and slamming it close behind him.

"Actually, I do kind of think he's an idiot. And a selfish one at that." I gasped, but Narcissa just shook her head, she seemed to be used to this.

"I HEARD THAT!" Came the booming voice of Lucius behind the door.

"Sure he did." Draco muttered under his breath, he started walking back to the chair next to me.

"I HEARD THAT TOO!"

"OH YEAH?! WELL, WHAT DID I SAY?!"

There was silence. A triumphant grin spread across Draco's delicate and sharp features.

"Yeah, I thought so."

He was a psychotic raving lunatic, there was no doubt about it. But as a smile formed on my lips, I realised that that was the exact reason why I said yes to him when he asked me out a year earlier, and it was because of episodes like this that I realised that my love for him would never falter, wither and die, just like the sad connection between Granger and Weasley.

-XX-

It was refreshingly original, I had to admit. Even if it did seem like she was just asking to get into trouble, it was definitely new. When I first saw her after the break, I just stared at her as if she was some kind of alien. The first thought that crossed my mind was: Is that a blue streak? I thought it was a trick of the light, then, when I got closer to her, I realised that lighting had nothing to do with it.

Daphne Greengrass had highlighted a bunch of strands of her hair blue. And, in my honest opinion, it looked amazing. It resembled her perfectly. Everyone always thought that with her perfectly curly blonde hair, and those gorgeous pale blue eyes that she was some goody-two-shoes teacher's pet, and it bugged the hell out of her. She knew she couldn't do anything rash or rebellious, her parents would kill her, literally, they were very particular about their image, then again, what parent of a Slytherin wasn't? But doing something like this, highlighting her hair, it was perfect. It showed that because she didn't dye all of her hair, it meant that she still had some innocence and sanity in her, but that streak showed her wilder side, her rebellious side. The side that agreed to start dating me, the side that never stopped dating me.

After Transfiguration, after having to sit and endure watching Daphne and Draco moon over each other for the entire lesson, I walked away from that dratted classroom as quickly as I could, but apparently I wasn't fast enough.

"Hey Zabini!" I heard Malfoy call behind me.

I stopped walking, took a deep breath and turned towards the man who was rapidly becoming my least favorite person.

"Yes, Malfoy?" I asked in my coldest voice.

"I need to ask you something."

"Go ahead." I sneered.

"I mean in private." He started striding towards a corner, and I knew that if I didn't follow, he'd start up a ruckus about it.

"You were saying?" I asked when we were both tucked away out of sight.

"Are you deaf or something?"

"No."

"Mentally retarded?"

"No."

"Stupid?"

"No."

"Stubborn, arrogant and/or just plain pathetic?"

"I'd like to think not."

"THEN WHY THE HELL CAN'T YOU FOLLOW A SIMPLE REQUEST?!" Somehow, the more intelligent part of my mind knew what he was talking about, though it didn't take a genius to figure it out.

"I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about." Still, aggravating him was more fun.

"I told you to stay away from Daphne. She's mine. I asked her out first."

"How would you know?"

"Because...because I just do."

"Really? Well you only found out last week that we were even dating. Did she tell you that you asked her out three months after I did?"

"I don't believe you." Malfoy sneered, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Fine, then go ask her yourself. Maybe having her own 'boyfriend' doubt her loyalty and honesty...turns her on in some way or another. Who knows?" I shrugged and walked away, practically feeling his razor-sharp glares on the back of my head.

When I was a few feet away, he finally seemed to think of something to say.

"Just stay away, or there will be hell to pay!"

"I'm sure it wont be any worse than having to listen to you all day." I called back over my shoulder, masking in the utter silence that followed my comment.

It was after that that I truly realized what I had said earlier. I told Draco to 'go ask Daphne himself'. Why would I do that? I'm trying to break them apart, not give them reasons to talk and be with each other. Stupid Zabini, stupid stupid Zabini.

-XX-

It was irritatingly turn-on-able, I had to admit. Seeing him with his hair half chopped off, that wild gleam in his eye, and of course, him ripping apart a harmless pair of scissors. But, as usual, I had to keep up pretences, so I 'pretended' like I was completely shocked and disgusted with him.

"Don't mutilate it!" I yelled, referring to the scissors in his hand.

"And why the hell not? It chopped off my hair!"

"Oh, you bloody git! Those didn't chop off your hair, she did!" I gestured wildly to the crestfallen House-Elf beside me.

"Oh." Draco set down the scissors on the nearest hospital bed. Then he slowly turned towards me and Terri, one of the school house-elves.

Cautiously, he advanced on us.

"You want to tell me why you decided to cut off my hair?" His voice was low, deep and dangerous. "While I was sleeping?"

Terri squeaked.

"Terri is so s-sorry, master. I was only f-following orders."

"Orders? From who?" Draco's eyes were wide with murder now, anger flashing through his eyes.

By this point, even I was curious.

See, we just had a Quidditch match against the Ravenclaws. And though Slytherin won, Draco left the grounds bruised and bloody. He had the worst injury so he was immediately rushed to the Hospital Wing. The match was a day before, and he'd been practically unconscious since then. I stayed by him the entire time, leaving only to get food, and even then, I made sure Ginny was watching over him, as I didn't trust Pansy in the slightest.

Draco woke up a couple of hours ago, then, after I filled him in on what had happened, and reassured him that I wouldn't be going anywhere, he fell back asleep. I figured he'd be out for a while, so I fell asleep on the chair next to him too. I woke up about an hour later when I could've sworn I heard faint snipping sounds. Kind of like scissors slicing through hair. I looked up and through my sleeping, droopy eyes, I saw a tiny, scrawny creature sitting on Draco's head, cutting wildly at his hair.

So naturally, I did what any sane female girl would do.

I screamed.

And I woke up Draco in the process. Terri, the house-elf on a mission, jumped off him and landed next to me, I ignored her for the most part, paying most of my attention on Draco. It seems that when he woke, and saw the scissors lying on his chest, then felt his head and realised that half of his hair had been cut off, he believed that the scissors were enchanted and starting destroying them. Literally.

And so started our little - forced on my part - spat.

Terri suddenly grew scared and cautious.

"No, no, no, no, NO! Terri must not say! Terri cannot say! Terri must not disobey master!" She fell silent for a second. "Terri must go."

Draco lunged towards her, about to grab her when she snapped her fingers and disappeared in a slight pop.

The Malfoy fell to the floor where the house-elf was just a second ago, his head was at my feet, and he was groaning from the impact. I rolled my eyes and knelt down beside him.

"How are you feeling?" I whispered.

His head slowly rose so he was looking straight into my eyes.

"Do you have any idea who sent her?" I knew he was referring to Terri.

I sighed, I did have an answer, but I knew he wouldn't like it.

"Draco, Terri isn't just a Hogwarts kitchen elf. She's...she, well she..." I took a deep breath. "She belongs to the Zabinis."

"Oh great." He banged his head against the cold floor repeatedly. I slid my arms around him and helped to pull him up. I pushed him back onto his bed where he fell over sideways, the impact of his head hitting the hard mattress making a slight 'thump'. "Why do you stay with that guy?"

I folded my arms and sat back down on my chair, staring at the floor.

"Draco, we've already had this conversation."

"Well I don't remember your answer, so tell me, why? What does he have to offer you?"

"What do you have to offer me?" I asked back, my tone getting defensive.

"My heart." His voice was barely audible.

My throat constricted, a lump formed in my stomach and my heart started beating increasingly fast. No one, not even Blaise, had ever said that to me.

"I can imagine he too would say something to that effect if I should ask him." I knew that Draco knew that I knew that I was lying.

"Oh please," His voice was muffled as he buried his head in his blankets. "He'd probably say it wasn't any of your damn business what he had to offer."

I shook my head and stood up, settling down next to Draco's head. "Now that's just exaggerating. That's probably what most people would think that's what you would say."

"Well 'most people' are idiots and arseholes." He muttered. I laughed in response and stroked his hair, encouraging him to sit up.

He wrapped his arms around me and I rest my head on his chest. I closed my eyes tight in preparation of what I was about to say.

"I love you, Draco." I looked up at him. "You know I do."

He nodded. "Yes, and I love you too, Daph. More than you could possibly imagine. It's just..." He trailed off.

"It's just what?"

"Are you going to say that to Zabini? Are you going to tell him to love him? Do you only love me with half your heart?"

I sighed and shifted my position so that I was staring into his eyes, those wondrous pale grey eyes that I just seem to be able to get lost in every time I glance at them.

"I don't know what I'm going to say or do in the future, and neither do you for that matter. I don't want us to end, I like being with you. I like being yours, and I know you want me for yourself, entirely, but I don't know if I can do that yet."

"Because you love Zabini as much as me."

"I didn't say that."

"Well if it isn't true then why are you stringing both of us along? Why are you giving both of us false hope? We all know that in the end, at least one heart will be broken." His voice choked for a second. "I don't want that one heart to be mine."

"There's only one thing you can do, Draco."

"And what's that, Daphne?"

"Believe. Believe in us, and we will find a way."

"Do you believe in us?" He asked me, his eyes glinting. His arms tightened around me, as if afraid that if he pushed too hard, I would run away from him and never look back, he was trying to make sure I couldn't escape, just not in the literal sense.

I shrugged. "I really want to."

"We are the perfect couple, Daph. We're just not in the perfect relationship. But there's one way we can change that."

"If I break up with Blaise?"

He nodded. "I will promise to love you forever, you already have my heart in your grasp, it's your choice what you do with it. But I will always pray that you'll keep it, and you wont break it."

There was silence for a while.

"I know what I have to do."

-XX-

It was unnaturally and exceptionally heartbreaking, Blaise had to admit. Seeing her standing before him, tears in her eyes, a cold face, a sad face. It was heartbreaking for two reasons, one, because he just hated seeing her like this, two, and possibly more prominent, because it hurt that it hurt her so much to lose Draco Malfoy.

Daphne Greengrass had just burst through the Slytherin boys dorm room, Blaise being the only occupant, crying her heart out and wailing about how Draco had just broken up with her because he was sick of sharing her. She stood in front of him, her figure slouched and defeated, her shoulders slumped and her face covered in dry tears.

"Thank you, Blaise." She whispered, ignoring his quizzical expression. "Thank you for not breaking half of my heart. I love you."

He froze. His eyes widened and his hands went cold.

"Well that was unexpected."

"The best kind of love is when you don't expect anything at all." She sat down next to him. "Thank you for being there for me and not giving up on us, despite everything I've put you through."

"Wait, hold on a second Daphne, we're only 16. What could we possibly know about love?"

She pulled back from him abruptly and he instantly knew that was the wrong thing to say.

"What?" She spluttered.

"I mean, things like this take time. You can't just assume you love someone after being with them for less than half a year! That's like the equivalent of offering your heart to a stranger."

"I'm a stranger to you?" Daphne asked, her voice coated in pain.

"No! No, no, no. I didn't mean it like that."

"Then how did you mean it?" She challenged.

"It's like I said, things like love takes time."

"No, Blaise, falling in love should be like Polaroids: instant." She stood up and started backing away.

"Okay, look, I'm not even going to pretend that I know what Polaroids are, or that I've got my whole life and future figured out because I don't, and neither do you, Daphne. I'm just trying to protect us from pain, from more hurting. You have to believe me."

The blonde just shook her head. "I'm sorry I came here tonight, Blaise. It was a mistake."

"No, Daphne stop. Don't be like that." He stood up and walked towards her, but she continued moving backwards. "You just have to give me more time. I care about you, Daphne, I honestly do, more than Malfoy ever did. I just need you to wait for me, you seem to be in a place that I haven't reached yet, but I will get there, I promise."

"I think the hardest part about waiting is not knowing whether you're waiting for anything at all." Her voice was just above a whisper, and Blaise could hear her heart breaking in it. He always thought it would be a little louder, maybe a couple of screams louder...

"Daphne, you don't know what you're talking about. It wont take long, I promise you. I'm already half way there, and I will get there." He pleaded with her, not wanting to lose her just yet.

She shook her head again. "It's time, Blaise."

"For what?" He croaked, not liking where this was going.

She drew in a shaky breath. "It's time to move on."

-XX-

It was an unconditionally spirit-lifting experience, Draco Malfoy had to admit. Being able to wake up one morning knowing that the woman he loved was his forever, and that finally, he was the only man in her life. The only man she loved, and the only man who possessed her whole heart.

AN: So that's my first Draco/Daphne/Blaise, and my first love triangle fic. I only decided three quarters of the way through to make this a challenge to response to The Quotes/Sentences Challenge at HPFC. Hope I did it justice! I really want to hear what you thought of it!

And if you've forgotten...reviews are LOVED and APPRECIATED!

=3

XD