Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the characters mentioned henceforth. Nor am I making any money off of them. Likewise, I do not own the song lyrics. They belong to Tom Jones and I was just borrowing them for this story.

The Common Room held more people than normal for a Saturday afternoon. The rain kept students from going outside and more people than normal crowded the library; that left the Common Room. Some of the students worked on their studies and others played chess or Exploding Snap.

Two seventh-year Slytherins sat near the fire. They looked up when they heard giggling across the room. The regular group of third- and fourth-year girls were having a gossip session.

“Must they do that in here? It’s bad enough they partake in such frivolity, but must they do it where everyone else can see and hear them?”

“Now, Lucius, I wouldn’t say it’s all that bad. We are afforded the opportunity to look at them all we want and they don’t even know it.” Lucius’ companion had a dreamy smile that was uncharacteristic of Slytherins; he eyed the girls as if he had never seen them before.

Lucius wasn’t impressed with this statement and returned to reading his book. “Yes, but they don’t mind when they do know, do they?”

The other boy just shrugged and went back to his homework.

*~*~*

The giggling had finally come to a stop and the sound of books being gathered up carried across the room. Lucius ignored it for the most part and kept reading. It wasn’t until his companion gave a soft, almost inaudible whistle that he looked up.

“Well she's all you'd ever want,
She's the kind they'd like to flaunt and take to dinner.
Well she always knows her place”

“What are you on about now?”

“That Narcissa Black is one fine-looking young woman. She blossomed out rather nicely over the summer. Nowhere near as hard on the eyes to look at as her oldest sister. Aye?”

“You had best do your looking elsewhere, Jugson. She has been firmly spoken for.”

There was a hint of warning in Lucius’ voice, but Alfred Jugson was too busy following Narcissa as she left the room to catch it.

“Really? She was free last I heard.”

“Apparently you heard wrong. Her father and I came to an agreeable understanding over the summer.”

Anyone who didn’t know him would have just heard the flat tone, but Jugson knew Lucius and detected a hint of steel behind the words. He gave a start and looked at Lucius with mild fear in his eyes. Though only seventeen, Lucius Malfoy was not a wizard to cross. He had already proven that time and again in duels.

“Hey, sorry. Didn’t know she was yours, I’ll refrain from looking at her again. Don’t need you to hex me into oblivion before we can do some real damage.”

Both boys went back to what they were doing, hoping the tense mood would evaporate on its own. When other members of the house started to filter back in from the dorm rooms they put their studies aside and went up to supper.

*~*~*

Later that night Lucius lay on his bed listening to his dorm-mates snoring. His thoughts kept going back to his conversation from earlier with Jugson and the song he was singing. It was a Muggle song that had come out recently. He had to admit to himself that he was rather surprised Jugson knew the song at all.

Lucius was more impressed with the fact that the song fit Miss Narcissa Black so well. He had heard the song while in Muggle London one afternoon and hadn’t thought much about it at the time, but as some of the lyrics came back to him, Lucius smiled into the dark as he drifted off to sleep.

“Yeah yeah She’s a Lady

And the Lady is mine.”

Author Note: I would like to thank Lady Narcissa for betaing and helping my grammatical errors. Thanks also to Sammy Weasley for the pre-beta and for listening to ideas and I got them. I couldn’t do this without the two of you.