A/N: Hiya!!! Just wanted to warn you. This story was scribbled in merely 1 hour, spell-checked, and I even didn't re-read it afterwards. Moreover, it was finished at 4:00 am. But I hope you'll enjoy it nonetheless. Here it goes (I don't have any strenght to write more in the A/N. I'm too tired).
A game of bluff
By All Mighty Me
The moon gushed its reflected light, like a mirror reflecting
lights in a theatre, delicately stroking
the blue-green waves of the lake. Birds, exhausted by the day's
heat calmly slept on tree branches, dreaming; village dogs,
unleashed from their daily prison stared at the shiny surface,
melodiously baying. The giant squid moved impatiently in the
greenish depths of the water, irritated by the silver glimmer
that dared to perturb his slumber.
Hermione sat at the window of the Gryffindor common room, staring
at the moon, mesmerized. It was 3:30 a.m., and she should have
been sleeping, but, being slightly perturbed, she didn't consider
sleep to be a very sensible thing to do.
'What did he say?' the thought flew somewhere at the peripheries
of her mind. 'His father? Stupid excuse.' she absent-mindedly
brushed the hair from her face. Something must have happened, is
he was behaving in such a manner.
***
"Hermione?" someone hesitatingly patted her shoulder.
"I waited for you to be alone. We need to talk." she
turned around and saw a pair of silver-gray eyes, that she was
sure to see, after all. It had already been a while since they
didn't have a proper conversation. In fact, when she thought
harder, they almost never had had proper conversations at all.
She followed him out of the castle, until the greenhouses, where
he abruptly stopped walking, turned around, and said:
"We can't continue"
"Continue what?" she answered with a question, knowing
what the answer would be.
"Our whole relationship, of course!" he
snapped irritably, looking as if he was teaching ABC's to a five
year old.
"But, why?" she asked dully, yet again, not really
caring about the answer.
They were an item for almost a year now, making out in secret
broom sheds, meeting at the Astronomy Tour at midnight, keeping
the whole thing secret from everything alive. At the beginning it
was even quite exciting: the secrecy, the intimacy and all that.
Sometimes she used to feel like Julia or another beautiful
Renaissance lady, waiting for her knight errant; it was quite
romantic.
But, as she knew, she was no lady in mid-Renaissance, Draco
wasn't a knight, and they surely couldn't continue their
relationship in that way. During the day, she was the studious
know-it-all, the bookworm Hermione, while the night seemed to
transform her into someone remotely different. She considered it
a lie, and most certainly didn't want to live in a lie.
"Listen" he said solemnly, while Hermione giggled
helplessly in her mind. Why didn't she think about it before? She
avoided Draco and all the places he could have been in for a
certain time; she didn't want to continue their relationship
either. But she was curious what sort of excuses could he find.
"As much as I enjoy the time we spent together, I just can't
continue it that way...for many reasons. First of all: my father.
He already considers me a gay, which, needless to say, is an
extreme pain for him." a small smile played on their lips.
They felt as if they were playing a theatre play of some sort,
and it amused them both greatly. She listened to his voice; it
changed from an official and stiff one to a little bit more
friendly tone.
"Second of all, come on, I'm a Slytherin, you're a
Gryffindor!" she scowled slightly at this one. She did
expect it, though, she just didn't want to hear it.
"You don't like us Slytherins, as much as I don't like you
Gryffindor goody-two-shoes. We're simply not meant to be
together. And we're not sharing anything, you know? Just a few
kisses shared in secrecy, a sort of mutual attraction. But you
can't build a while relationship on that." there there
there... who would have expected Malfoy to make such
speeches...curious how much time it took him to repeat his role.
He turned away, looking as though he couldn't bare looking her in
the eye. She thought that maybe he was sincere this time.
"And, I don't know why am I telling it to you, but I'll be a
Death Eater. I already am one, Hermione. It's my destiny, and I
don't feel like changing it. Even if my choice will be considered
the 'easy' one by Dumbledore and his kind, it's what I am and
what I'll be. And I'm not going to change it just because of a
few snog sessions in a cupboard with you, you should have
known." he searched her face, looking for a sign of
reaction. He spoke very urgently now, as if wanting to get rid of
something. It was strange, really. He talked and talked, not
letting her say a word. In fact, she didn't as much as make a
single gesture. He continued:
"And, you know, it's time we got REAL partners. We're in our
sixth year, Hermione, and I don't think I could go through
another year in that way. I want someone to love, not to lust
over. And even my very rich imagination can't see me being in
love with you. Yours neither, I guess. I know I'm talking a lot,
and that you know what my point is" here she felt a little
bit surprised. She looked up, and saw him looking into her face
in an amused sort of manner. 'I know everything', his eyes said.
It made her feel shivers up and down her spine. 'Scary' she
thought, before listening to the end.
He straightened up, looking hard into her eyes.
"In one word, I don't want to be with you anymore,
Mudblood" he coldly said, walking away, leaving a Pensive
Hermione next to Greenhouse n°4. The sun reflected itself in its
windows, causing Hermione's hair to shimmer with the light.
"Lust over...huh" was all she said, before turning
around and leaving for the Gryffindor common room.
***
The moon shone brightly on her face, illuminating it, making her
brown eyes sparkle in the dim light of the fire.
"Her...miiioooneeee...?" she felt someone pulling on
her sleeve. "Wha are you doin' 'ere at
this...*yawn*...time...?" It was Ron, standing next to her,
sleepy-eyed.
""Huh? Umm...Nothing. Just thinking." she shot a
last glance towards the moon and repeated, for the first time
seeing the world in another light "Yeah. Just thinking"
***
"Whole dating world is like a game of bluff[...]with men
and women firing at each other from opposite lines of sandbags.
Is as if there is a set of rules that you are supposed to stick
to, but no one knows what they are so everyone just makes up
their own. Then you end up getting chucked because you didn't
follow the rules correctly, but how could you be expected to,
when you didn't know what they were in the first place?" -
"Bridget Jones, The Edge of Reason" by Helen Fielding.
******
A/N: So, liked it, hated it? Let me know!!!
...or not.