11 pm, Room of Requirements
No one looks back at life and remembers the night they got plenty of sleep. Turns out, it was one of those nights for a certain Gryffindor and her Slytherin counterpart. Having spent seven years as a Hogwarts student, one would expect to have experienced everything that magic has to present. But alas, if life was magic, color it surprise because that's what magic is - surprise!
And while some may be fascinated by this bundle of amazement, two people were not. Who would be if they were being stuck in a room for the past half an hour or so, with their arch nemesis for company, and no escape door in sight.
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10:30 pm, Seventh Floor
Hermione had just escaped her demise. After all, Gryffindor Saturday nights were nothing if not lethal and not in a good way. Every Saturday, all the gryffindors would huddle around in the common room to play a disgustingly perverse game of Truth Or Dare. Not that Hermione was a prude, mind you. But seeing how everyone around her was already riding through their own realm of romanticism, it was not uncommon for her to feel just the tad bit left out. Not to mention, the dares given to her were highly unjust! One moment, Ginny gets a dare to take a body shot from Parvati's navel, and the next, Hermione gets a dare to..., well..,um..Hermione, you.,sing the Hogwarts school song!
She was eighteen, not eight, for Merlin's sake. And her housemates should stop treating her like one. So what if her copulating experience wasn't that copious, or was not present at all, that could change if only her friends would stop treating her like a prepubescent child.
And so she had snuck in to the Room of Requirements to loosen up and had asked for a place to actually enjoy herself and her more vagrant, mischievous (nonexistent as of now) side.
Little did she know, she had just asked for her death sentence. Sweet, little death.
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10:25 pm, Outside Room of Requirements
Draco Malfoy was bored, tedious, and every other synonym of bored. It was a Saturday night and just like its predecessors, had found itself being unwinded rather hotly in the dungeons down below. Slytherins were shagging left, right, centre, and even in diagnols. It was like an orgy, for fuck's sake. And while Draco usually seized these nights to lighten himself, he couldn't even get it up tonight. The girls were getting quite predictable, to say the least. He'd been with them long enough to have become accustomed to a regular schedule. Fifteen minutes to choose his paramour. Five minutes foreplay (if any). Fourty percent chances, they'll make it to the dorm. Or just get on with it. He wouldn't be completely undressed, neither would she. A few hard strokes. She'd scream like a banshee. She'll come. He will, once he'll get her to shut up. And that's that.
And so he had extracted himself from those, and had found his way to this little haven. He required an out of this universe experience with someone. Anyone who'd not bore him to tears. An exciting night with a nymphomaniac.
Little did he know, his goddess was coming straight from the lion's den.
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Present
"We're stuck in here Granger. And its your fault."
"How in the world is this my fault if you felt inexorably horny tonight?"
"Like you came here to start a missionary." Draco scoffed.
"Shut up, you prat. We need to work this out. The room wouldn't let us out until our requirements are fulfilled. I asked for a daring night. To loosen up. What about you?"
The wheels of her brain were running now.
"Just to get it up, and eventually, well spent." Draco stated with a smirk at Hermione's burning cheeks.
"Deplorable!" Hermione shrieked. This was not she had imagined 'loosening up' would feel like.
"You are. Now what do you wger we do? I for one, have no interest, whatsoever in wasting the night with a shriveled up prude." Draco drawled.
"I'm not a prude. And neither do I fancy a night with you unless it involves my hands and your dead corpse." Hermione was soon reaching her final straw.
"Didn't peg you for necromancy, Granger."
"Shut up, Malfoy. If you can't help, at least don't worsen the situation."
"I don't think that's plausible." Draco muttered.
"Me neither." Hermione concluded with a sigh.
But you know how it is with magic and mysteries. You always get what you least expect. And so, magic did its course.
They were proven wrong.
A scrap bit of parchment materialized out of thin air and landed in Draco's waiting hand.
And with it, landed a set if instructions that would put both their lives on chaos.
Written in an elegant scrawl were the words -
"Deeds and Debts"
Welcome to the game of candour and mischief.All the dares shall you do for def.But if you choose them not to do,A debt to your partner shall beckon you.
"What kind of a joke is this?" Draco agitated.
"Clearly the worst one in history", Hermione retorted.
Both the teenagers were close to losing their precious temper.
They were both seething silently, both lost in their own raging storms when Draco broke the impending disaster.
" I reckon we'd be playing the game."
"What?! Have you lost it, Malfoy? Why wold you want to do any such thing? Its not children's play. We're not playing house. Its far more serious."
"And our only shot at leaving this wretched place. Think, Granger. I have no interest, whatsoever in candooling with a stuck up bitch like yourself. Yet, here we are. Now, get going, Granger. Let's just get this over with." Draco reasoned.
And there it was again, the S-T-U-C-K-U-P label. Hermione was not one of those girls who care a lot about their looks, but even she deserved to feel pretty. Or maybe you're just ugly that way. Her inner malevolence prickled.
Well, better to get this entire situation out altogether. That's the rational approach. More over, neither was overjoyed about their position. And so, whatever deeds they'd commit, they would be left and buried in this room forever. No attachments.
"No attachments to mudblood prudes, Granger."Draco's snide remarks cut through her reverie and she realized she had said everything out loud.
"No attachments to fidgety, fedit ferrets, Malfoy. But not a word goes out. And I'd need a wand oath. I know better than to trust a Slytherin."
"Like you have to ask. Get over it, prissy."
With that, both presented their wands and began the needed incantation. It involved a clause for neither of them to breathe a word of whatever would conspire tonight, to anyone outside this room. And the person to break the oath would have Weasley freckles all over their faces (Draco's addition) along with a compulsion to serve the other person for a complete day.
After the foundation had been laid, both of them took up the two seats available in the room before a warm fireplace. It was a cozy setting with plush burgundy carpets, dark, rich room decor, and a pleasing scent of mahogany, firewood, and something distinctly like home.
"So,...um, how do we play this game?" Hermione asked after a total of forty seconds of twiddling in her seat.
On the table between them, there appeared two bits of parchments. Hermione grabbed the upper one with the word 'DEED' written on it. And what a deed was it, indeed.
"Absolutely not!" Hermione cried out,"I am not doing that. Its all innane." She threw the paper and stood up.
By the time, Draco had got a hold of the paper. And what he read undid him entirely. And not in a pleasurable manner.
'Mark your partner's naked torso with your mouth.'
Nevertheless, it was quite alright compared to how Granger is reacting.
"Its just a Hickey, you know." He tried to reason. "Not like I'd want to have your filthy teeth searing my precious flesh, but I think it's better than you blowing off some other partsbof my flesh." He smirked. She blushed.
"But, I can't..., I've never. I won't." She ended rather meekly. Its wasn't like she didn't know what marking meant. Its just that she didn't know how to do the job. And she certainly didn't want to do anything less than Hermione, i.e, perfect, in front of her enemy.
"So you'd rather the debt, Granger? Bleeding gryffindor." Draco was rather amused by the girl's earlier awkward denial to the deed. No wonder she was as plain as his great grandmother's garden trees.
As if on cue, the debt card fled straight into Hermione's hand.
If Hermione was flushed earlier, she was hyperventilating now. Never in a million years would she do something like this. It wasn't just deplorable and dreadful, but it was outright cruelty. This game was far more manipulative than the entire snake's dungeon down below.
There on the debt card was written a short, scornful command -
'Command the house eleves to beat up each other until one of them passes out.'
Hermione would even marry Malfoy than commit this sin any day.
And so, with a sigh, she mustered all her Gryffindor courage and made her way to where Draco was lounging around. Clearly enjoying her distress.
"Let's just get this over with, ferret. Wouldn't want to keep your skinny bones waiting."
"They're skinny enough for you to want to jump them, Granger. Try to resist the temptation."
Draco was shocked when Hermione had finally conceded to follow through her deed. But one quick glance towards her debt card, and he knew that she would've even murdered him to save this bleeding house eleves. On second thoughts, she'd murder me even without the need, Draco mused.
And with that, he too, stood up and started unbutting his shirt just enough to bare his neck and shoulders to her, at a slow, calculative pace.
And finally, both of them stood before each other reeking of pride, dare, and a bit of anticipation.
Things were about to change, and they both knew it too.