A/N: Written for the QLFC. I'm Keeper for the Wimbourn Wasps and my prompt this time was to write about my otp fighting. That would be Draco and Hermione. Took me a long time to come up with this one!
Hermione clenched her hands tightly around her cup. The glass bowed under the pressure of her nervous hand. She brought the quaking wine to her lips again and kissed the bitter drink. Setting the glass back down, she dug her nails into the grooves of the table.
"Relax, Hermione," came a voice to her right.
She shook her head stiffly at the freckled girl beside her.
"How can I relax, Andrea?" Hermione asked without looking at her friend. "I have no idea who you're dragging into this with me!"
"I've told you before, you'll be fine. You're so much alike you won't have to worry about finding things to talk about," Andrea said.
"Just tell me who it is!" Hermione begged. "I'd feel much better!"
Andrea didn't respond. She swept her midnight hair to the side and leaned forward to talk to her date across the table.
Hermione nervously adjusted her dress and stared at the empty chair across from where she sat. Her fingers felt numb as she wrapped them around her glass again. That chair would soon be occupied by a total stranger. Someone who her friend, Andrea, had met a few nights back along with her own date. It had been a long time since Hermione had been on a date, and Andrea knew that. So, she decided to help her friend out and set her up on a blind date with a guy who, she claimed, was perfect for Hermione.
Hermione, on the other hand, wasn't so sure. Her date was already five minutes late. She hated tardiness and could feel her annoyance tingle in her legs. He hadn't even shown up yet and Hermione knew he was no good.
She puckered her lips and blew out a sigh. Leaning back, she checked her watch. Time seemed to crawl by on its belly. She wished he would hurry up so it would be over.
The flickering torches hugging the brick walls of the restaurant suffocated her with their oxygen-sucking heat. Her skin felt itchy and seemed to crawl. The tablecloth didn't help either. It was course under her skin and uncomfortable.
"I'm so sorry I'm late," came a voice from above.
Hermione didn't raise her head. This must be my wonderful date, she thought as a flash of black and white in front of her cued him sitting down. She decided she couldn't stare at her plate all night. Molding on a counterfeit smile, she rose her face to say hello. However, be it blessing or curse, her greeting was cut short.
"You have got to be kidding me!" her date interrupted, and seeing him now, she wondered how she hadn't recognized his voice before.
Her face crimsoned and her teeth ached as she bared them behind thinned lips. "Malfoy," she growled curtly.
"You two know each other?" Andrea asked.
Draco daintily picked up his napkin and placed it in his lap without looking at anyone. "I had the pleasure of attending school with Ms. Granger here," he responded tightly.
Hermione gave a haughty laugh from behind her teeth.
"Something funny, Granger?" Draco asked.
She cut the table with her nails. "Oh nothing, Malfoy," she said, her words dripping with sarcasm. "Just remembering the bits of our school days that were pleasurable."
His eyelids lowered as his brows went up. "Really? Like what?"
Her nostrils flared. "Like the time Professor Moody turned you into a ferret."
His upper lip twitched and Hermione could see his jaw grinding his teeth. "Comical," he said flatly. "My favorite was the time you had to go to the hospital wing because your teeth wouldn't stop growing. Though, Professor Snape and I both agree, you looked no different."
Draco watched her bite her cheek and fight to come up with something better to say. He had to admit, he missed torturing Granger. It was even more fun when she was trying to keep her cool. He liked to wager how long before she exploded. He noted the steam already coming off her cheeks and judged that it wouldn't take long.
"Well," she said. "That isn't nearly as great as the time you were being a complete arse so I punched you. Broke your nose, didn't I? Still looks a little crooked, but maybe it's always been that way."
He resisted the urge to feel the bridge of his nose for crookedness.
"Funny you should say that," he growled. "Your nose is rather flat from being pressed against the pages of books all the time."
Hermione took a deep breath. She didn't know how much longer she could last. Instead of snapping back, she turned sharply to her friend.
"Andrea? A word?" she demanded, yanking Andrea to her feet and dragging her on numb legs toward the toilet.
When they were in the secluded corner, away from Draco and Andrea's date's earshot, Hermione rounded on Andrea.
"What?" Hermione hissed at her. "Perfect for me? Please tell me you were joking!"
Andrea was biting back a grin. "Hey," she said, holding up her hands. "I didn't know you two knew each other."
Hermione crossed her arms and cut crescent moons into her skin with her nails. "I can't do this," she said, biting her lip and pleading with her eyes. "Please let me leave."
"You're not leaving, okay? You promised to stick it out, even if you hated him."
"I don't think you understand! I more than hate him. I loath him!" Hermione looked back to the table where Draco seemed to be having a similar conversation with Andrea's date.
"Loathing?" Andrea asked, bowing an eyebrow. "Is that what you call it?" She smirked.
Hermione felt bile sting the back of her throat. "That's what I call it because that is what it is." Her shoulders fell and she clasped her hands. "Please!" she begged. "Don't make me do this!"
"Listen, you can leave as soon as he does." Andrea started pulling her arm back toward the table and Hermione shuffled behind reluctantly, whining.
"But our history together!" she whispered frantically. "It's not good! This will not end well!"
Andrea ignored her as they approached the table, and Hermione glared hard at Draco as she plopped down. He stared boredly back at her with his arms crossed over his black tie until the waiter came to take their order.
Hermione hadn't looked much at the menu, but she wasn't feeling much like eating anyway. She ordered a salad, figuring it would be easy to eat and light on her stomach.
"Careful, Granger," Draco cooed from behind his menu. "You don't want to get fat."
She bit her tongue until her eyes watered and refused to acknowledge him.
For most of their meal they kept their heads down and avoided even thinking about each other. Draco sneaked glances at her over his pasta and smirked at her angry face. Her cheeks were red as cherries and her lips were thin and white under her light lipstick. She had lasted longer than he'd thought. He'd break her though, before the night was over.
The silence between them became thick like smoke. It was hard to breathe and made their skin shrivel. Andrea could sense it. She set down her fork and licked her lips clean.
"Let's try something," she said. "A way to get to know each other."
Hermione could have cried.
"We'll take turns asking questions and everyone has to answer," she continued, her date nodding in agreement. "Let's start with an easy one. Like, what's your favorite animal? Hermione?"
Hermione winced.
"I already know what Granger's favourite animal is," said Draco, twirling his pasta mindlessly. "A weasel. Red-headed ones in particular."
Hermione didn't hesitate to snap back. "And I already know Malfoy's. It's a ferret. Especially jummpy, bouncing ones. Don't you, Malfoy, because they remind you of yourself?" With satisfaction, she saw his grey eyes flash darker.
"Well," he said, keeping his cool demeanour, "If we're going by likeness, then Granger is definitely a House Elf. Or a particularly hairy Mountain Troll."
"Okay, who has the next question?" Andrea said quickly, keeping her face frozen in an indifferent smile.
"I do," Draco said confidently, looking nowhere but Hermione's purpling face. "I want to know if Hermione Granger has a hard time holding her head up with how big it is."
"It's supposed to be more of a group question," Andrea said, but she was drowned out by Hermione's retort.
"I want to know if Draco Malfoy is ever going to grow up!"
He laughed at that and Hermione felt her blood boil. She was so angry she felt like crying. She clenched her fists to distract her from doing just that and blinked hard.
"You're just like your father!" she ground out between clenched teeth.
The air seemed to shift and the room got colder. Draco's face became hard and different. His cool demeanour seemed to shatter. He glowered with his eyes dark like charcoal.
"And you're just like every other Mudblood I know," he hissed.
It was unnervingly quiet. The other chatter in the restaurant seemed to swell around them. Hermione's eyes burned. Acid tears began to pool and her heart ached like her rib cage was made of ice. Her forearm stung hot and biting where the same obscenity was engraved. She stood up quickly, nearly knocking over her chair, and tried to compose herself. Her lungs expanded and deflated as she forced herself to stay calm. It wasn't going to work. She had to get out before she broke down. She couldn't let him see.
She walked drunkenly out of the restaurant to the dark street. Her cheek touched the bricks on the side of the building and darkened them with her tears. She couldn't understand why it hurt so badly. She'd been called it before, but this time it made her ache all over and want to collapse on the pavement where she could curl and die.
The world started to rock like the sidewalk was the deck of a boat. Her legs unbalanced and she slid down the wall to the concrete. Furiously, she scratched the tears from her eyes and swallowed her sour breath.
Draco watched her eyes glaze over and her lip quiver. He watched her try to compose herself and stumble to her feet. He watched her fly to the door so he couldn't see her pain. He felt his own eyes burn. Regret was like cold water pouring down his head. He knew he had crossed the line, but so had she.
Hermione's friend stared daggers at him.
Dabbing his mouth with his napkin, he swallowed hard and stood up. He walked out of the restaurant. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the night outside, but when they did he had no trouble spotting the hunched form of Hermione on the ground against the wall. Sighing, he walked over to her.
"Granger," his voice wasn't soft and he wasn't trying to be quiet either.
She looked up at him. His shadow loomed over her and she felt small and cold below him.
"What do you want?" she croaked.
"I want-" he cut himself off, grinding his teeth and taking a deep breath. "I want to apologize. I'm sorry I called you a Mud- that word."
She looked at him warily. It was hard to see his face from where she was on the pavement, but his voice sounded genuine.
"I haven't said it in a long time," he continued. "I was just angry and it slipped out."
He didn't say anymore and it was quiet like he was waiting for her to accept his apology.
"I'm sorry I said that about you and your father," she said instead of verbally forgiving him.
His silhouette nodded slightly. Hermione could see his breath cloud in the cool air where his mouth should have been.
"Stand up," he told her after a minute.
"Why?" she asked, but he didn't answer.
Instead, he held his hand out to her. She looked at his fingers and up his torso to his face. Impatiently, he shook his hand for her to take and her cheeks warmed and she placed her fingers in his palm, scrambling to her feet. His hand was cold and stiff, but it helped her up nonetheless.
"Do we go back in?" Hermione asked.
He blew out a jet of fog and stared up and down the road. "Let's go somewhere else. Start this over. Promise to talk nice to one another."
"And leave Andrea?"
"Well, if you're not Gryffindor enough for it..."
"That seems more Slytherin to me."
He shrugged. "Is there really a difference?"
She thought for a moment. "I guess not."
"Then let's go."
He began walking down the sidewalk and Hermione came in step next to him. She wrung her hands against the cold, wishing she had pockets like Draco to warm her hands in.
Draco noticed her shivering hands, but chose to ignore it. "By the way," he said, watching her out of the corner of his eye. "That dress looks horrible on you."
She huffed and looked down at what she was wearing. Her mouth opened as she raised her head to retort and saw that he was smirking at her. The roots of her hair warmed.
"And your suite makes you look like a corpse," she countered.
Draco grinned and stared at the street lamps, taking deep breaths of the crisp air. He didn't know where they were going, but they were going.
A/N: Don't forget to review and favourite!