Breaking the Rules


Summary: Hermione never liked breaking the rules. But her only chance at a forbidden desire involves breaking many...on her own...
Genre: POV, character-centric
Rating: PG

***

I was the most obedient child you'd ever seen. If mommy, daddy, or the teacher asked me to do something, I always followed without question. I was that model student, the one teachers loved and students hated.

Befriending Harry and Ron was the best thing I'd ever done. Slowly, they took me in, and they taught me that creating a little mischief wasn't such a bad thing. I was a bitchy girl at first, but they always saw a little troublemaker inside of me. I should thank them.

We've broken many rules together, the three of us, throughout the years. Such fond memories I have. Hogwarts would have been far less interesting without our "off-limits" adventures.

But without my two best friends, the Hermione I always was came back. Break the rules without my friends? The thought made me stiffen in fear. What if I got caught? And expelled? My parents would cry forever.

That night, though, I had to break the cycle. I had to break the rules.

By myself.

Earlier that year, a strange desire had come upon me. A forbidden desire. Being rational me, I felt as if I'd already broken a rule. Mum always told me a girl would fall at least one time for a boy she had no business liking. I guess this was that crush.

It all started innocently enough, that I began to like this Slytherin. Casually, I noticed in our first class together that he had grown handsome. He had such a nice voice. He was evil...he was forbidden. That only attracted me more, until it became so unbearable I could scarcely concentrate.

That, for Hermione Granger, is not acceptable behavior.

I had to tell him, if nothing else, to get him off my mind. Maybe he would like me back. Maybe he wasn't what he appeared to be on the outside. Maybe I was foolish. The plan I had was dangerous. And I told no one, not even Harry.

I like to sleep every night, as many hours as possible. I find it helps my studies. But that night, there was no sleep. I stayed awake until I heard the clock strike midnight. Then, I crept out of my room. Rule number one, broken.

I cast spells on myself, so that I could not be heard. I snuck to the boys' bunk bed, a place I'd never been before. I walked to Harry's bed, and, trembling, I picked up his invisibility cloak. "I'm just borrowing it," I whispered softly, more to comfort myself than anything else.

I put the cloak on and ran outside, trying my best to navigate within the darkness. It was tricky, and I felt like I was smoldering under the cloak. But finally, I found it. There was the Slytherin house. I walked in. The portrait saw nothing.

I stopped, scared and tense. I didn't have the password. How could I have been so stupid? The picture was asleep. I took out my wand and muttered a spell I had learned from extra-credit reading, my voice sputtering in a way I wasn't used to.

The portrait opened, obediently, giving in to the charm that made it confused. I stepped in. Another rule, toppled.

I had no need to go to the bedroom, it turned out. There he was, blonde locks and all, sitting in the common room, all alone. It looked like he was reading; it was some sort of Death Eater book I knew was forbidden. I couldn't believe it. Yes, I could.

I took off the silencing charm. "Draco," I said, stabilizing my voice as well as I could.

He whirled around in confusion. "Who is it? Where are you?"

Running my hand quickly through my frizzy hair one final time, I took off the cloak. I clutched onto it tightly, needing some sort of distraction. "Hermione. Hermione Granger," I said, more confidently than I felt.

Draco looked at me and growled. "What are you doing in here, Mudblood? With those three friends of yours? I have my wand, and I can kill you all."

"No," I replied. "I'm here alone."

"You, alone?" he said, genuinely surprised. "You mean you didn't need Potty and Weasel to back you up?" he finished in a condescending tone.

I paused a moment, keeping my temper in check. "I don't need Harry and Ron," I said, completely composed. "I'm here to tell you something, Draco."

"Get on with it Granger," he sneered. "The last thing I want to do is talk to a Mudblood."

I spoke, taking it as a good sign that he hadn't tried to kill me. "Look, this is going to sound completely irrational for me, and it is," I began. "But I'm attracted to you, Draco. I really like you. I don't know why, but I do."

"Well, all girls find me dashingly handsome," he drawled in a cocky voice. "But...hearing that from a Gryffindor! And a Mudblood, of all creatures! It makes me sick!"

I shouldn't have been surprised. "There's nothing I can do? You won't try it at all?" I said, pleading and letting my desire take over."

"I would do nothing with a Mudblood," he said, cackling with finality. "And if you don't get out of the Slytherin house now, I'm going to make you get out."

"Okay," I said sadly, knowing I had lost. "Just...please don't tell anyone, okay?"

"No problem there," Draco said, looking at me with his handsome face. "As if I'd want people to know I ever talked to you!"

And so, without thinking, I put the invisibility cloak and ran. Back to Gryffindor. My home. It was over as quickly as it had started. I carefully put the invisibility cloak back by Harry's bed and creeped back to mine. Lavender and Pavrati never stirred.

I was sad, but I didn't cry. Hermione Granger never cries. So Draco Malfoy...it wasn't possible, just as the rational part had told me again and again. He was a death eater, and he wanted Harry's head...and mine. I'd-I'd only wanted his body, right? Of course, I reassured myself.

I sat there, counting the rules I had broken. I snuck, I stole, I left, I confronted, I ran back...there were a lot. But I'd done it. I hadn't gotten caught.

With a slightly wistful sigh, I put away the quickly shrinking infatuation with Draco, the angel-faced asshole. Instead, a smile came to my face. I don't smile often, either.

But I'd done it. I'd broken rules. All on my own. I won.

I was finally free of myself.

***

Author's note: I started out with a challenge for myself...write a realistic Draco/Hermione. Truthfully, I can't see this couple happening without serious OOCness, unless the pairing evolves slowly in a long fic with plot. I only write one shots, and I really couldn't come up with a good D/Hr. Maybe I'll write one someday.

Instead, I wrote more of a character piece on Hermione. She loosens up, but I don't ever remember her breaking the rules without Ron and/or Harry somehow involved. That thought, combined with my initial desire to write D/Hr, caused me to write this strange love-child spawn of a fic. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope I kept everyone in character. Until I write another HP fic...later!