This is just a little one-shot I had playing on my mind. Enjoy.
Hermione tucked the stubborn curl behind her ear for the fourteenth time in six minutes as she walked down the corridor on her patrol. She huffed again, because Ron had shirked his prefect duties for the third time in a row, and it was too short notice for Hermione to get anyone else to help her. It was ten o'clock, which meant that curfew had been in action for an hour, so ideally, no one would be about. Occasionally, a first or second year would be a bit brave and try to have a night-time stroll around the castle, but Hermione always put a stop to it with a smile as she considered her own past of rule-breaking. An almighty crash broke through Hermione's thoughts, and she whimpered before whipping out her wand. She moved quickly and silently down the hall, following the echo of the sound, and found herself at the door to the girl's bathroom – more accurately Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. She pushed open the door, willing the door to not creak, but Hermione Granger had apparently run out of luck.
"Who's there?" A male voice asked, laced with panic. Hermione ducked behind the door, hoping that of all the boys she could have encountered, in any of the bathrooms within the school it had to be him. It may have taken her a moment to place the voice, but the exact second she had, her heart started beating three times faster than it had before. What in Merlin's name was Draco Malfoy doing in Myrtle's bathroom? And at ten o'clock at night at that? "I said, who's there? Answer me!"
Hermione took a deep breath, clutched her wand tighter and walked slowly around the door, her stomach fluttering with nerves. "It's Hermione Granger."
"Get out of here, mudblood!" Malfoy hissed, pointing his wand at her chest while revulsion twisted his sharp features.
"I have more right to be in here than you, ferret. One, I'm a girl and this is the girls bathroom. Two, you're not on rounds tonight and I am. Three, you're clearly not in here to expel bodily waste, nor to wash your hands or face, which is the sole purpose of a bathroom," replied Hermione, sounding merely bored, though inside, she was shaking. An angry Draco Malfoy with a wand pointed at her chest while she was alone on patrol was probably not the safest thing in the world for her. And she had called him 'ferret', she remembered, trying not to cringe at her stupidity. Yeah, because taunting Malfoy ensures that he won't hex you, Hermione thought bitterly.
"I told you to get out. Ignore my order again, mudblood, and it will be the last thing you do."
"Do. Not. Call. Me. A. Mudblood." Hermione spat out through her gritted teeth. Malfoy's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"I thought I warned-"
"I don't give a damn about what you thought! My name is Hermione Granger, not mudblood, or filth or any vile thing you wish to call me!" Hermione exploded, her scream bouncing off of the tiles and ceramic basins in the bathroom. Moaning Myrtle's head popped out from a toilet that was a foot away from where Malfoy was standing.
"Ooh, what's going on here, then?" The ghost cackled, looking between the two teenagers.
"Nothing of interest, Myrtle," said Hermione angrily. "I was just teaching Malfoy here what my name is."
"You're a worthless little girl with disgusting dirty blood. What name could possibly be any more fitting than mudblood?" Malfoy asked in mock confusion. It gave Hermione great satisfaction that she already had her wand pointed at his chest. As a Sixth Year, she had been learning non-verbal incantations. The only problem was that Malfoy had been learning them too. She mentally shrugged and thought 'Silencio!'
Malfoy opened and closed his mouth, clearly trying to form words, but thanks to her charm, he was incapable of making a sound. He flicked his wand and as a jet of green light flew at her, she instictively threw up a shield before casting a full body-bind on him, her heart racing. He had actually tried to kill her! He had fired an Unforgivable at her.
"How was that, Granger? Put things into perspective, did it?" Malfoy said, radiating smugness from every pore in his pasty skin. The first thought Hermione had was that he had undone the Silencing Charm on himself. The second thought was that she hadn't disarmed him, which could cost her her life. The third thought was that he had called her 'Granger' instead of 'mudblood'. And then...
"You tried to kill me!" Hermione shrieked. Malfoy started chuckling, and then when his eyes roamed her face, he outright laughed.
"For the 'brightest witch of your age', you're very stupid. Do you think someone like me would risk my education and freedom to murder someone as worthless as you? Not to mention, I didn't cast the killing curse – it was a curse that was similar to the Cruciatus curse, only not as vivid. No doubt you would be in excruciating pain, but it wouldn't be as bad as that Unforgivable. No, I didn't try to kill you, merely... cause you extreme pain."
"You're a sick, twisted, inhumane-"
"You don't need to tell me, I already know it all. I've heard it before," said Malfoy, interrupting her. He sounded extremely bored.
Hermione spluttered angrily and felt a wave of heat run down her wand arm, right into her wand... no. She would not stoop to his abysmal level. She took a very deep breath and pinned him with a glare. "What are you even doing here, Malfoy?"
"It's not really your business, is it?"
"You made it my business when you tried to curse me. Besides, you're out after curfew with absolutely no reason to do so."
"Point one, you used magic on me first – I merely retaliated. Point two, you don't know that I have no reason." Draco, no – Malfoy, replied. He took a step towards her, and she flinched. "After all, Granger, we both know where this bathroom leads."
Hermione's mind whirled. The Chamber of Secrets. But what business would Malfoy possibly have down there of all places? On the other hand, he could just be trying to get a reaction out of her, and there was no way that Hermione would rise to something as harmless as that. Calling her 'mudblood' was a whole other story because it caused her emotional hurt. She decided to feign ignorance. "Actually, I have no idea what you're talking about, Malfoy. Perhaps you're thinking about the wrong girl."
"Oh no, I'm not. Myrtle told me about everything. Including the Chamber of Secrets and how to get into it."
"So do it then. Go into the Chamber. You'll find nothing down there but rat skeletons and the carcass of a basilisk. The worst thing is that the basilisk was blinded, so the damn thing won't even kill you. Pity." Hermione replied, pretending to be disheartened at the fact. Inside she was shaking, because it didn't matter how much she despised Malfoy, she wouldn't wish death on anyone – except perhaps Voldemort. Too many people had died already.
"You don't want me to die either way."
"I disagree," quipped Hermione, though she knew she was lying.
"It's true. You get a rush every time you see me. Your stomach flutters every time I say a word to you – even if that word is 'mudblood'. You-"
"The only reaction my stomach has around you is the need to empty itself of everything in there by projectile vomiting. All over your fancy shoes."
"I wasn't finished. You blushed when you smelt Amortentia because the only time you had been close enough to smell me, you smelt parchment and spearmint toothpaste and we were outside, where the grass was freshly mown. I'm fully aware of what I smell like, Granger, and you blushed because you weren't mortified at the fact you had to tell everyone the smells that turn you on most, but that those were the scents you were most familiar with when I was around," said Malfoy. With each sentence, he had taken a step towards her, and Hermione's heart was racing. She didn't want to listen any more, but his voice had captivated her and as much as she wanted to smash her head against the wall for admitting it – what he was saying made sense. Hermione felt heat rise to her cheeks once more when everything clicked into place. Of all the people in Hogwarts castle, male or female, she had to have a crush on Draco Malfoy!
He was three steps away from her, and she smelt the parchment and spearmint again. It invaded her senses and made her head swim. "You need to move. Now. I can't breathe."
"You can't breathe because your body has betrayed you by desiring me. Don't deny it now, Granger. We both know it's true." Draco said. Two steps.
"Take one more step and I'll hex you," gasped Hermione. Her gaze dropped to his shoes and one lifted. One step. Her wand seemed to rise all on its own and a stinging hex hit Draco on his chin. He tapped it with his wand, wincing, and the hex undid itself before the tip of Draco's wand gently prodded the skin beneath her chin and jerked upwards, guiding her face up. He took the last step and closed the gap between them, making Hermione tremble. "Please don't do this."
"I don't do anything I don't want to do Granger," Draco told her before pocketing his wand and placing his hands on her shoulders. Hermione closed her stinging eyes. "I don't tolerate being hexed either."
"Draco..."
"There." He said, and his hands slid down her arms, his fingertips barely touching her wrists, but seeming to have an unbreakable grip on them. Hermione didn't dare open her eyes. And she waited, eyes tightly shut for what she thought was the inevitable... and it never came. After nearly thirty seconds of being essentially blind, her eyes snapped open to stare right into Draco's pools of silver. "I wanted you to watch."
"Watch what?" Hermione asked irritably. Watch him laugh and walk away? Watch him curse her? Watch him find another girl and snog her right in front of her?
"This," said Draco with a small smile, and this time she kept her eyes open as his face moved three inches closer and his lips brushed hers. She kept her eyes locked on his as he kissed her more heavily and she watched for any change of emotion in his cold eyes as he traced her lip with his tongue. She parted her lips and their tongues met, causing an explosion of flavour to burst her taste buds and that was when her eyes closed. Hands left her hands to settle on her waist, pulling her even closer, and her own hands snaked up his chest to lock behind his neck. He pulled her flush against his body and she felt something hard prod her stomach. Her eyes opened, looked down and widened almost comically, she was sure. She wrenched herself out of Draco's arms and took in his suddenly tousled hair and red lips before she whirled and ran so fast back to Gryffindor Tower, she felt like she was flying, her feet barely slapping the hard stone of the corridors. It was only once she was back in the empty Common Room that she collapsed on a sofa and let her fingers brush her swollen lips.
"What have I done?" Hermione asked aloud, in a broken voice. No one answered her, of course, except for a tiny voice in her mind: as first kisses go, that wasn't so bad.
Hermione groaned and threw herself face down on the sofa, hoping to not only muffle the oncoming groan of despair but to potentially asphyxiate herself in the process. Merlin knew she didn't want to live to see the next day after all of that. Another voice broke into her mind, and she instantly recognised it as Draco. He only said one word.
"Granger."
What say you, lovely reader? Go on, leave me a review, you know you want to.
Lottie.