Love And Hate
Oneshot
Why her? The task was difficult enough, but why was it her that kept on coming back to his mind? It should have been Pansy. Surely, it was all a big mistake. The problem was, he couldn't deny the facts.
Draco sighed and ran his hand through his light blonde hair. It looked as if it had to be done. Get a few drops of Granger's blood and collect them in a small tube he had stored away in his cloak.
How ironic. She was a mudblood. It wouldn't be hard to get some of her worthless blood then, a few drops of the red liquid running through her veins. Whatever. It wouldn't be difficult.
She would most likely be in the library, stuffing her freckled nose into a pile of books just to get a bit smarter again, to then be able to show off all of her wretched wisdom and knowledge.
Didn't she know that it was just annoying? Apparently not. Draco sighed again, wondering if there wasn't any other way. It didn't matter that he would have to get some blood, it was simply the fact that it had to be hers.
'Not exactly hers' he corrected himself mentally, scornful, but it was true. It was him who had to find the most suitable person, and it just happened to be her.
Walking at a casual pace, he didn't let the occasion pass of annoying and making fun of a few first years who quickly ran off, scared. He had to admit, he enjoyed that kind of thing, but he was unsure why.
Hadn't Granger once told him that it was because it made him feel better than he was? Nonsense, that girl didn't know what she was talking about. Malfoys had a natural authority about them.
There weren't many students in the library, due to the nice weather, but some were studying for upcoming exams. Interestingly enough, she wasn't there. Draco groaned. Where was the mudblood when she was actually needed?
He went off again, wondering where she could be. Truth be told, she could be anywhere. Even in the Gryffindor common room. Just great.
He distractedly stared out of one of the big windows, looking over the lake, and let his eyes trail absent-mindedly over the scenery. He stopped. There she was. The young man had to look twice before recognising her, sitting underneath a big tree.
He smirked and made his way outside, enjoying the bright sun on his pale skin as he walked through the park.
Hermione was alone, sitting further away from others, staring out over the lake. The wind was blowing through her brown hair, making it swirl around her face. She looked thoughtful, but it was hard to tell if her expression was serious or not.
'Just thoughtful' Draco supposed.
The young girl had been sitting there for a while now, contemplating the lake, forgetting about her studies for a while. The day was far too nice to simply be spent inside, and she was far ahead of the others anyway.
She had been undisturbed for a while now, and was pulled back to reality as a shadow fell over her. The young girl looked up, her face getting defensive as she saw who it was.
She firmly turned her head away, but Draco was determined to get what he had come for. Now the next problem was that he had no idea how to get it. He couldn't simply cast a spell on her, or just cut into her arm to get some blood.
Why couldn't it all be easy?
He decided to take his chances and to see what happened next. There was not much that could go wrong, anyway. It all happened fairly quickly.
She turned her head back to him, a fierce glint in her eyes, which was replaced by something close to alarm in an instant as she looked up at him. He stood over her, moving towards her threateningly, and she backed away against the tree.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" Her voice didn't betray any of the emotions that were so clearly visible on her face.
He simple sneered, not saying a word, and crouched down in front of her. She didn't know why, but something about the look on his face made her back off a bit more until her back touched the tree.
Knocked from her balance by the sudden contact, she had to catch herself and stretched out her arm behind her, but didn't see the low branch sticking out of the trunk. It scratched the length of her forearm, leaving a deep gash in her skin.
Hermione clenched her teeth in order not to scream, and felt the warm blood escape from the cut and run over her arm down to her hand. Decided not to utter a sound, she half turned away from Malfoy and pressed her other hand on her arm. It wasn't deep, but it burned a lot and she could see some of the blood dripping off her fingers, though it wasn't much.
"Go away" she said firmly, trying to ignore him.
Draco's eyes widened as he finally took in what had happened.
Blood.
He could see the bright red liquid flowing down her white skin, creating a great contrast of colours, and didn't seem to be able to take his eyes off it. He didn't know what he had actually expected, but it was a shock to actually see it. It was just like his.
He leaned towards her, but she shied away from him and leaned her head against the trunk of the tree. She closed her eyes, her skin pale.
"I'm not telling you again" she said, getting angry. He stayed silent.
Hermione frowned as a new wave of pain shot through her arm. It wasn't very strong, but enough to make her feel nauseous. She simply stayed leaned back, trying to block out any emotion or feeling that came from the outside.
Suddenly, cool and soothing fingers touched the hand she had firmly placed over the scratch and gently removed it. Her first instinct was to shake him off, but then she didn't. She didn't even look up and simply let him do it, though she knew she should be pushing him away. It didn't matter.
His skin quickly got stained from her blood as he picked up her arm, unsure of what to do. Through all of his confused emotions he could see that this was the perfect opportunity for him to get some of her blood, but again, he didn't know how to do it.
Following a sudden impulse, he slowly bent his head down and lifted her arm a bit further up. Hermione squeezed her eyes tightly shut as she felt the contact of Malfoy's lips on her arm.
She couldn't help but shudder as he slowly kissed her wound. Her blood tasted just like his; salty and like iron. He didn't know why he was doing it; trying to ease her pain which a few moments before he hadn't really cared for. He wasn't all that sure of what he was doing right now, but it didn't matter. He wasn't thinking.
By doing that, he also cleaned out her cut, sucking some of the blood into his mouth before turning away. This was his only chance: he swiftly got out the small glass tube from under his cloak and let the few drops of blood from his mouth run into it before storing it away safely. Then, he looked up, noticing that she was staring at him. He stared back into her wide eyes, sure that she hadn't seen him doing it, intensity building up as both didn't dare to turn away.
She didn't smile. Neither did he.
"Go" she whispered, desperately trying to hide her confusion. All of that hadn't taken very long.
"This never happened" he growled.
She looked away, then nodded curtly, simply to show that she acknowledged his words.
It wasn't exactly hurt he felt, no, but something else, close to it. He knew that it was the best way. He didn't respond, just got up and slowly turned. Without looking back, he slowly walked away.
Draco didn't know why it had been her who had kept on coming back to his mind. He just knew that it was her whose blood he had been looking for. It was a simple potion, not much. An experiment. It wasn't Pansy; it was true, he hated her, but there was another element missing. People he hated; there were many other people who could have gone into that category. He hated many, loved a few, but that wasn't the point.
The blood he had needed was the blood of the person he loved and hated the most, at the same time. There had only been one person fit for that.
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