King of Hearts
Chapter One: Playing Cards
Draco's POV
She was always playing such ridiculous muggle games, and teaching them to her friends. Like Hearts. He didn't really understand the rules, but he did notice that she played it with that "deck" of playing cards.
He was at a loss for how to get her attention. Before, they had always bickered, but he wanted a different kind of attention. He brainstormed for hours, and finally managed to come up with a good idea.
Draco knew that he could get a hold of anything he wanted, at anytime. But this was different. He had never attempted to retrieve anything from somewhere as dangerous as the Gryffindor Common Room before. However, he was sure that he could do it, along with the help of his two cronies, Crabbe and Goyle.
Draco snapped his fingers, and, immediately, his friends were by his side.
"That was loud! Right in my ear, too," Goyle complained, grimacing.
Draco glared at him. "Wimp."
"Wimp!" Crabbe mocked, laughing.
"Oh, shut up!" Draco snapped, annoyed.
"He called you a wimp!" Crabbe continued, ignoring Draco.
"No, he was talking to you," Goyle argued.
"No, he wasn't!"
"Yes, he was!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
Draco rolled his eyes and sighed. "Time for Plan B."
Hermione's POV
It was another cold winter night. Hermione was sitting by the fire, enjoying a hot cup of cocoa. And she just happened to be scribbling away on her piece of parchment.
"'Mione, no more homework. It's Christmas break! Put it away and relax for once," Harry begged, sitting at a table. The black marble chess set in front of him was his Christmas present to Ron, who was currently occupied with obliterating Harry's Queen, but took a short break to add his input.
"Yeah, 'Mione, come on. Relax."
Hermione gave them a pointed look, then returned to her homework. "You know this essay is due in a week. I can't relax when I have homework to do!"
But the boys had turned their attention back to their game.
Hermione was still up doing homework at nine-thirty that night. The boys had to resort to forceful tactics to get her to bed, and threats to keep her there. She finally fell asleep.
But downstairs, a certain pack of cards was left unattended…
Draco's POV
Draco sat in the Slytherin Common Room, staring at the object in his hand. So far, so good. Granger would be running to her in no time. Now, just wait.
"Where is she?"
"Still in bed," a silky voice replied.
"Argh! When will she get up?" This explosion didn't receive a reaction from the 6'2" Slytherin standing behind Draco. Instead, he waited patiently for the anger to wear itself out.
It did.
Hermione's POV
Hermione woke up late the next morning. Well, it was more like afternoon. One o'clock, to be exact. Surprisingly, she wasn't worried. She just stretched, got out of bed, and headed down to the Common Room. Sitting right where she had left it was her favorite deck of playing cards. They were the ones with the pinstripes on the back, and, for some odd reason, Hermione was crazy about them.
She picked them up and dealt a game of solitaire. As usual, she was about to win, but she noticed that there was still one card left to play, and her hands were empty. She looked around, on the floor, under the couch, and everywhere else she could think of, but she didn't see the missing card anywhere.
"What's wrong, 'Mione?" Ron asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes.
"Yeah, what's wrong?" Harry repeated, coming down the stairs, stretching his arms and yawning.
"Have either of you seen my King of Hearts?"