Now You See It, Now You Don't

"DON'T WALK AWAY FROM ME MUDBLOOD!"

"DON'T CALL ME MUDBLOOD, FERRET FACE!"

"HOW DARE YOU!?"

"STOP SHOUTING AT ME!"

"YOU STOP SHOUTING AT ME!"

"For god's sake Malfoy, I'm standing five feet away from you, I am perfectly capable of hearing you without you shouting like that!"

Malfoy glared at Hermione. "Well the same goes for you Mudblood." Hermione's eyes flashed at the name, but Malfoy continued, ignoring her reaction. "Besides, you started it."

Hermione rolled her eyes. Boys were so immature sometimes. "I hate to break it to you Malfoy, but you are the one who yelled at me first. And don't call me a Mudblood!" her voice was getting more and more high pitched as she spoke until she shrieked the last word. Malfoy looked slightly surprised, but then quickly hid it.

"Why not, it's what you are." he said coolly.

Hermione just stared at him for a moment, then took a step toward him. A shadow of fear passed over his face and he stepped away from her. Hermione smirked. "Don't worry; I wouldn't waste my energy just to hit you."

He glared at her. "Like you could." he sneered.

'He's just provoking you,' Hermione thought. 'Just let it go, walk away.' But she couldn't. She merely stood there glaring at the blonde boy.

He shifted uncomfortably under her gaze. "Do you want something Granger? You're polluting my oxygen, not to mention you're an eyesore. Get out of my way Mudblood!" He pushed her shoulder to walk past, instantly knowing it was a bad idea. Hermione smacked him on the back of the head, hard. He swung round and raised his hand to hit her back, but she was too quick to him. She slapped him and pushed him to the ground. He yelled in pain and made to stand up, but stopped abruptly when Hermione shoved her wand in his face. He looked up into her eyes, not caring that he looked extremely scared.

"Don't...ever...call me that again." Hermione said, shaking with anger. "You...you..." she was cut off by a rumbling sound. She looked up, not lowering her wand, and glanced down the corridor. "What the..." she murmured as the rumbling got louder. Malfoy tried to crawl away but Hermione put her foot on his chest. She turned her attention back to him, and said in a low, dangerous voice, "Stay there ferret. You'll pay for -"

Again she was cut off, this time by the ground shaking. She lost her balance and tumbled on top of Malfoy, who snorted in disgust and pushed her off of himself. He struggled to his feet and held onto the wall for support.

"What's going on?" whispered Hermione.

Malfoy ignored her and took a shaky step.

"Wait for me!" squeaked Hermione, scrambling to her feet and grabbing her wand which had fallen a few feet away. She went to follow Malfoy, but a particularly violent shake sent her flying into his back. He growled and managed to stop himself from falling. He turned and glared at Hermione. "Do you mind?"

"Oh shut up, it's not like I did it on purpose!" she retorted. "Besides, why would I want to touch you if it wasn't necessary?"

"Whatever Mu...Granger."

Hermione pulled a face at him and stood up again.

Malfoy turned away and glared into the darkness. He wondered what was going on; it was eerily silent and no candles were lit, making it extremely difficult to see where he was going. "Lumos," he muttered, hearing Hermione do the same a few feet behind him.

They continued walking down the corridor, wands drawn, trying to ignore the rumbling noise, which was steadily getting louder and louder until it was deafening. The ground shook again and Hermione whimpered and grabbed Malfoy's arm.

"Get off me!"

Hermione shook her head and clung to him even tighter. He glowered and shook his arm, trying to remove her hands. "Bloody hell woman, get off!"

Hermione ignored him and he sighed. He began walking quickly, practically dragging Hermione behind him. After walking for what seemed like hours, he suddenly stopped and turned to face Hermione.

"Blood supply." he said.

Hermione frowned. "What?"

"Blood supply. We need it to stay alive, right?"

"...yeah..." agreed Hermione. She wondered where he was going with this.

"Well you're cutting mine off."

"Wha...?"

Malfoy held up his arm, onto which Hermione's hand was firmly clamped. She quickly moved it and looked at her feet. "Sorry," she mumbled. Malfoy smirked and rubbed his arm. He pulled up his sleeve to find a very red mark on his forearm, finger prints and all. He looked at Hermione, daring her to say something.

She stared back at him defiantly, determined not to make a comment. They held eye contact for a full 30 seconds before Hermione rolled her eyes and looked away. She glanced back down the corridor, trying to work out how long they had walked.

"Can't've been that far." she muttered. "We've only been walking for about ten minutes...still, I never knew the Hogwarts corridors were so long..." she trailed off when she saw Malfoy looking at her intently.

"You do know that talking to yourself is a sign of madness don't you Granger?"

"So's having hair on the palm of your hand."

Malfoy looked confused. "I don't have hair on..." he paused and lifted up his left hand, inspecting his palm. He moved his wand closer for extra light and narrowed his eyes. He looked back at Hermione. "See? I don't have hair on the palm of my hand so..."

"Another sign is looking for said hair." Hermione interrupted.

Malfoy looked stumped and glared at Hermione. He knew she had tricked him, but wouldn't admit that she had got the better of him.

Hermione felt his anger and hatred for her radiating from his body and unconsciously took a couple of steps away from him. She walked forward, then hesitated. She turned back to Malfoy.

"D'you reckon we're going the right way? Or should we go back that way?" she pointed back the way they had come. "And what corridor are we in, anyway?"

Malfoy shrugged and glared at Hermione. "How should I know, I'm the one who's crazy, remember?"

Hermione stared at him. She hadn't been expecting that. She continued staring as Malfoy started inspecting his nails. At length he sighed as though he had just made an incredible decision, and moved away from the wall he had been leaning on.

"We'll carry on the way we're going. Who knows where it'll end up. With any luck, the kitchens. I'm starving."

Hermione rolled her eyes for what felt like the millionth time that day, and began to follow Malfoy as he sauntered off down the corridor. The witch sighed. 'God I'm following him like a lost puppy,' she thought to herself. She was lost in her thoughts when suddenly she tripped. "Ah! Bloody hell!" she cried as she steadied herself.

Malfoy turned to her, an amused expression on his face. "Honestly Granger, do you kiss you're mother with that mouth? I'm ashamed."

Hermione glared at him. "Get lost Malfoy."

"Well that was a low blow." he drawled. "I'll run away at that one."

Hermione debated hitting him again, but decided it wasn't worth it. She couldn't even think of a good comeback, so, with as much dignity as she could muster, she marched past him and continued down the corridor. She heard him jog to catch up and then fall into step with her. She eyed him out of the corner of her eye and found that he was grinning.

'Honestly, he's so pathetic!' she angrily thought to herself. 'And I wouldn't even be in this mess if it weren't for him...' she suddenly remembered why she had been standing in a corridor yelling at Malfoy. He had insulted Ron's parents (again), causing Ron to try and curse him. Luckily for Malfoy his mate Blaise had been standing nearby and had caught Ron just as Ron's curse missed Malfoy and hit Blaise. Unfortunately for Ron, Snape had happened to be passing and had sent the two boys up to the hospital wing, with a week of detentions for the red head, and 10 points removed from Gryffindor just because Harry had happened to be standing nearby. 'Urgh, he's so unfair!' she thought to herself.

"What?"

Hermione turned in surprise to Malfoy, who was looking at her in a confused manner.

"Did I say that...out...out loud?" she stammered.

Malfoy smirked again. "Yes Granger; that would be why I asked you what you were going on about. Really, I think you have a lot of cheek saying I'm crazy when you walk along muttering to yourself and..."

He continued his rambling as they walked, but Hermione wasn't listening. She was staring intently at the ceiling. Was it her, or was that crack slowly getting bigger and bigger?

She snapped out of her trance when Malfoy grabbed her arm and waved his hand in front of her face.

"Were you even listening Granger?"

"What? Oh...of course...erm, yeah...potions was great..."

Malfoy raised an eyebrow then released her arm. "Yeah whatever," he said.

Suddenly they both heard a loud crash and looked back down the corridor, searching for the whereabouts of the mysterious noise.

"What was that?" asked Malfoy. Hermione was pleased to notice a trace of panic in his voice.

"It was a noise Malfoy, look it up -" she stopped when she noticed a piece of the ceiling begin to fall and grabbed Malfoy, pulling him out of the way.

"Oi what are you...Ah!" He stared at the fallen rock, eyes wide with fear. He glanced at Hermione, who was also staring at the rock. "Er, Granger? I think we should get outta here." Hermione nodded and they both set of at a run down the corridor. They could hear the ceiling caving in behind them.

"What the hell is happening?" yelled Malfoy over the noise.

"I don't...MALFOY LOOK OUT!" screamed Hermione.

Malfoy stopped and looked back at Hermione, who was pointing at something above his head. He slowly looked up, just in time for a large piece of the ceiling to meet with his skull. He slumped to the floor, vaguely aware of Hermione screaming his name and pulling on his arm. 'Christ woman, that hurts!' he thought. He heard Hermione scream, followed by a loud thud, which he assumed was her being knocked out too. 'This is not good...' he thought, before everything went black.

A/N: Well, whaddya think? It's my first HP fic, so be nice, but reviews are very much welcome!! Feel free to criticise.

Cheers to Fringy for coming up with the title, couldn't of done it without you! Have some cheese!

Anyhow, enough of the randomness, next chapter will be up soon. Hope ya liked...