Title: When Literacy Attacks ( 1 of 1)
Challenge 29 from "The Quiet Ones"
Rating: T (I think)
Date: September 4, 2005
AU – an impossibly nice version of 6th year
Potterverse belongs to J. K. Rowlings

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Malfoy was getting dressed for dinner when he couldn't find his tie. Blaise was lounging in their room, looking completely innocent.

"So where's my tie?" Draco demanded.

"There's one being used as a book mark over there in that book on your desk," remarked Blaise absently.

Malfoy looked. There, on his desk, was a book he'd been looking for in the library a few days ago. Hexing, Unhexing - theory and practice. Malfoy was surprised, as he certainly hadn't mentioned anything to Zabini. He looked at the house tie, being used as a book mark.

"What's the Griff tie doing here?" he asked.

"It's a present for you."

"Like I'd want a Griffindor tie?"

"It's Hermione Granger's. I'm sure you could find some suitable use," answered Blaise before he walked out to dinner. "See you later," he said.

Draco wondered if Zabini had lifted the book off Granger, or something like that, but time enough for that later - he wanted to read about returning hexes. The book had a slight aura of dark magic, but that was not unexpected considering what the topic actually was. He opened to where the tie marked and found there text which surprised him:

'"Don't close this book!" said Hermione' read the text right on the page - the words forming where Draco's eyes landed.

"Hermione Granger?" asked Malfoy aloud.

'"Draco, don't close this book! Please!" repeated Hermione plaintively' read the book. Right under the text where it read what Malfoy had said aloud.

"Can you hear me?" he asked, seeing the words appear on the page: "Can you hear me?" asked her visitor with a lazy drawl.'

'"Yes I can, and don't think of leaving me here!" she cried. Hermione's curls shimmered in the sun, like shades of honey.'

Malfoy laughed. She must be hating this. "Or else what?" he asked.

"'It wasn't a threat, Malfoy, but if you need it to be, I am more than capable of making your life miserable. More miserable, I mean, jerk.'"

"So what kind of book is this, Granger? I can smell that the inside doesn't equal the outside." Draco started riffling through the pages, looking for one not dominated by Hermione struggling to escape.

'"Don't Do That!" screached Hermione' amid giant bold letters in the text.

Draco then saw more text come into focus on the page, becoming readable and he read it. He found out what kind of world was in this book. He laughed a bit, callously.

"'Draco Malfoy, get me out of here this instant,' said the irate young lady, her pale dress faintly waving in the slight breeze which blew, the scent of cypress travelling on the wind up from the grove beyond the park. "Would you stay for tea, Mr Malfoy?" she continued shyly' the text read.

Malfoy couldn't believe how dumb Granger must have been to get caught this way. One thing didn't make sense, though.

"How did Blaise get your tie?" he asked.

'"Pulled out a quill, wrote that it was out of the text, and it popped out" she replied,' struggling against the genre.

"So what are you wearing now," asked Malfoy with a smile.

'Miss Granger, confused by the seemingly irrational question of her gentleman caller blushed and turned away. Her delicate demeanor only attracted Mr. Malfoy more.'

"What the blazes is that?" said Draco with a nasty start.

"'Get me out before it pulls you in, nimwit,' replied Miss Granger, pouring a cup of iced tea for both herself and Mr Malfoy."

"DON'T LET THE TEXT SAY YOU DRANK IT!" yelled Hermione, raising her cup --

Draco closed his eyes. He stood, and backed away from the desk. He turned around and blinked his eyes for a moment. The book was before his eyes for the partial instant that he saw, but he didn't read. His eyes slammed shut, and feeling his way back to his bag, Draco pulled out his quill.

His eyes resolutely closed, Draco composed a sentence that the quill produced.

"Suddenly, Hermione Granger left the book and returned to her real life."

He heard a pop and a quick spell from the witch. It seemed like a good spell under the circumstances, and Draco opened his eyes. The book was chained closed, fallen to the floor, struggling to be free. Draco added a spell of his own, and the book then sat embedded in crystal, unmoving.

Draco looked at his rival and found her retrieving her tie. "Don't I get to keep it as a trophy?" he asked.

She glared. "Can I have that quill?" she replied.

"It was a present from my father."

"He'd probably burn it if he knew it saved me."

"I saved you. And you'd never know with him."

Hermione turned to the door, and found it would not open. She turned back to Draco who sat innocently on the bed. He waved in mock hello.

"Gentle sir, could you kindly escort me out of here.Now." she asked in sarcastic annoyance..

He looked as if this were a puzzle he was considering while she glared some more. "It would be easier to get you out if you were in the book," he offered.

Granger's look communicated her lack of approval.

Malfoy smiled, waved his wand, shrank the crystal encased, chained book, retrieved it, pocketed it, and escorted Hermione out.

"We should give that to a teacher," said the dutiful student.

"I should have kept flipping pages until I got to a good part," mused the other student, as if to himself.

"Drop dead," Hermione said with some venom.

"Eventually," he replied with a grin, pulling her into a discrete corridor which lead out of Slytherin territory.