Hermione had been in the library finishing up a book on hexes Ginny had lent her for an assignment due in two weeks. When she closed the book, she hurriedly grabbed all her things before hurrying to the Gryffindor common room. She had to give the book back before heading to her own quarters. Being Head Girl had a lot of benefits: space, privacy, silence…
As she stumbled into the Gryffindor common room after having murmured the right password, she was met with a dozen of stares coming from students all comfortably sitting on the floor in a circle with drinks in their hands.
"What are you all doing? You should all be in your rooms at this time," said Hermione, her Head Girl reflexes kicking in.
"What are you going to do, Hermione? Deduct points? Give us all detention?" mocked Seamus, earning himself a couple of giggles from the students on the floor.
"Stop it! Have you all forgotten who I am? I'm still Hermione, a friend… Not a parent, not a teacher. I don't hand out detentions to everyone with a toe out of line, you know," replied Hermione angrily.
"Oh yeah? Well, will you join our little game then?" Dean asked, trying not to grin too much, knowing she would easily take the bait.
"What is 'your little game'?" mouthed Hermione, trying to hide her curiosity.
"Come sit next to me, Hermione!" yelled Ginny, before answering her question, "We're playing 'Do, Date, Dump'. It's a really simple game actually. One person names three people, and you need to say who'd you do, date, and dump. If you refuse to answer, or if you take too much time, you drink. Understand?"
"Um, I think so…" answered Hermione while taking a seat next to Ginny. Ron was right in front of her on the other side of the circle snogging Lavender.
"For example, if I said Viktor Krum, Crabbe and Neville Longbottom, I'm pretty sure everyone in this room would agree on doing Viktor Krum, dating Neville, and dumping Crabbe. Easy, right?" smiled Ginny while pouring Hermione a cup.
"Yes, quite simple. What is this?" demanded Hermione as she brought to her nose the cup Ginny handed her.
"Dragon Scale," stated Seamus after emptying out his glass and handing it over to Ginny for a refill.
"I'm not even going to try and know how that got in the school," grumbled Hermione.
"Alright, so, my turn now: Viktor Krum, Cedric Diggory and Fleur Delacour, all participants in the Triwizard Tournament," announced Lavender as if she had been paying attention all along.
"That's easy. Do: Fleur Delacour; date: Krum; dump: Diggory," answered Ron quickly before his lips were stuck on Lavender's face again.
All boys agreed, and depending on the girls, some would place Krum in the 'Do' whereas others would place Diggory in that category. A couple of rounds took place before it was Hermione's turn to name three people, and she was more than ready.
"Dumbledore, McGonagall, Lupin," exclaimed Hermione when it was her turn.
"Ewwwww, not them!" complained the players.
Harry gulped the contents of his cup, and everyone followed his gesture. No one wanted to answer that, but now, they were all thinking about trios more repulsive one than the other. Soon, people were blurting out trios of terrible Death Eaters and everyone was constantly refilling their cup.
Hermione felt bad because the Gryffindor common room was now filled with drunk students, but that meant that they'd now all go in their rooms to sleep.
"I think we should all go to our respective beds now," said Hermione carefully choosing her words to make sleeping seem like the most appealing option.
"Not yet," pleaded Parvati.
"Yeah, Hermione. We're not tired," yawned Seamus, "And didn't you say you weren't a parent?"
"I'm not a parent, but I still have responsibilities. So one last trio of names, and you're all off to bed," maintained Hermione in a firm voice, making sure all understood she wasn't giving them a choice.
"Pansy Parkinson, Draco Malfoy, and Marcus Flint!" shouted Lavender earning her a silence filling the entire room.
"Do: Pansy; date: Flint, dump: Draco. Who in their right mind would want to even spend time with the ferret?" puffed Ron.
"Who in their right mind would want to spend time with any of these Slytherins?" refuted Harry.
"Who in their right mind would not want to spend the night with Slytherin's Prince?" argued Parvati.
The boys all looked at her with looks of horror whereas most of the girls seemed to agree with her.
"Alright, time to go to bed now," ordered Hermione as she got up on her feet uneasily even though she hadn't had that much to drink.
"Hey! Hermione, you didn't answer the last one!" pointed out Lavender.
She had hoped no one would've noticed and gone to bed immediately, but it seems that it was too much to ask for.
"Fine. Do: Malfoy; date: Flint, dump: Pansy," sighed Hermione.
"You have to be kidding!" scoffed Ron.
"I'm not," said Hermione as she handed Ginny her book, getting ready to leave soon.
"Hermione, are you feeling sick?" joked Ron.
"I'm merely picking him as the least bad of all three," grumbled Hermione.
"But, he's the worse!" exclaimed Harry.
"When Parvati or the other girls place him in the 'Do' section, it's alright, but when I do it, it's a scandal! I'm getting tired of your immature reactions, double standards or whatever you want to call them," snapped Hermione.
"He's called you names, he's always trying to get on your nerves, he's-"said Ron while looking around to get approval from the rest of the Gryffindors.
"Ron, do you remember the last time you heard him do any of that?" cut Hermione angrily.
"Yes, just recently-"started Ron.
"The last time he did any of that was two and a half years ago," commented Hermione.
The room was instantly filled with silence.
"Had you been caring about my whereabouts, you would know… You would have realized. I can't believe it. You take my friendship for granted. You all think I'm no more than a studious little girl who takes school too seriously," screamed Hermione as tears started rolling down her cheeks.
"Hermione…" began Harry.
"Go in your rooms, now," articulated Hermione as she tried to stay calm. Harry and Ron started walking towards her, but they quickly changed their mind seeing the deadly glare she was sending them.
When everyone left the common room, she could hear whispers coming from the rooms. But she didn't care. She exited the common room, and only stopped walking to throw herself on the couch of her quarters.
When Draco got out of the bathroom, he started strutting towards his room until he heard sobbing. He sighed and took the stairs instead to go see the young damsel in distress that sounded so miserable. Over the last year, late night conversations had become a habit for the both of them. Right before heading off to bed, they would meet and talk about anything for a couple of minutes before leaving each other for the night. They had talked about their anxieties, but never had she crumbled down to tears. She was strong, he knew that.
"Bloody hell, Granger! If you don't stop sobbing, you'll drown the whole common room in no time," observed Draco. He saw her lying on the couch, and gently lifted her head. Then, he managed to sit on the couch where her face had been, ignoring that her tears were starting to soak through his pyjama bottom, and set down her head on his thigh. She smelled alcohol.
"Go away, Malfoy," cried Hermione as she wiped her face on the leg of Draco's pyjama.
"Are you trying to convince me to leave by rubbing your face all over my thigh? I tend to think you're trying to soak my pants through and through for me to have to take them off. You don't need to go out of your way if that's what you want, lovely," joked Draco.
"You're such a prat, Malfoy," laughed Hermione at the same time as tears kept rolling off her face.
"If you don't stop complimenting my fabulous personality, I might start to blush," warned Draco trying to hold a straight face.
"I hate you," whispered Hermione as she starting tracing the lines on Draco's pyjama pants with her index.
Hermione's finger was tickling him, so he decided he needed to focus on something else. He started brushing her hair with his fingers.
"When you're done repeating that nonsense, maybe you could tell me more about what upset you enough for you to decide to bring the sea level higher with your flow of tears," hinted Draco. His fingers were now tangled in her hair, and he was trying to untangle them as subtly as he possibly could.
"Idiot," said Hermione as she smiled lightly.
"Oh, so is that the game you want to play tonight?" inquired Draco lifting an eyebrow even though she was not looking at his face.
"No, no, games tonight," pleaded Hermione.
"Alright, so how about you tell me whatever it is you are not telling me?" asked Draco.
"Guess," ordered Hermione.
"I thought you didn't want to play games tonight," replied Draco.
"You are my biggest frustration, Malfoy," muttered Hermione.
"Hmm, I think this one is the best compliment you've found for me, yet!" exclaimed Draco, clearly enhancing his excitement.
Hermione sighed, "You were right."
"That's it? But, my dear, I'm always right. How-"began Draco.
"You were right about Harry and Ron. They don't know me. They think my whole life revolves around good grades. All these years, I was the tag-along-friend. Our friendship was centered on them. I-" continued Hermione. Tears were rolling out of the corner of her eyes again.
"Sit up, Hermione," ordered Draco. Hermione sat up, and Draco took her in his arms. He started rocking her back and forth as if he was in a rocking chair.
"Thank you," whispered Hermione.
"Don't worry about it… But how did you come to that conclusion?" asked Draco.
"Hmm… The Gryffindors were playing a drinking game called 'Do, Date, Dump'. Basically, three names are given out, and you need to say who you'd do, date and dump between the three. The names given on the last round were: Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, and Marcus Flint. I put you for 'Do'; Flint for 'Date'; Parkinson for 'Dump' as did most of the girls. Everyone found it normal that other girls put you first, but it was a scandal that I did. Ron and Harry were sure it was a joke. I told them I was tired of their double standards and all. I ordered them to go to bed, and left," explained Hermione.
Draco was astonished by Hermione's revelation. The Head Girl had been playing. A drinking game. In the Gryffindor common room. During the school year. This had to be a dream… Something wasn't right!
"Yes, I was playing a drinking game, get over it, Malfoy," grumbled Hermione.
"Someone pinch me! I must be dreaming!" gasped Draco.
Hermione brought her hand up to his bicep to pinch him, but he grabbed her wrist right before she pressed her fingers together on his skin.
"Actually, don't pinch me. If this is a dream, I want to enjoy it as much as possible," whispered Draco before lowering his face to hers to make their lips touch.
Hermione was taken aback, but quickly answered his kiss. His lips rapidly got more insistent, and in no time, her lips parted to allow him to deepen the kiss.
Draco broke off the kiss for a second to say, "I've wanted to do this to you for a while now."
Then Hermione broke off the kiss a split second to reply, "I've wanted you to do this to me for a while now."
Draco then brought his legs up on the couch and lay down on his back pulling Hermione on top of him in a comfortable position.
She raised herself on her forearms, looked deep in his eyes, and said, "I don't want to spend the night alone tonight."
"I promise I won't leave if that is what you want," murmured Draco looking at Hermione, asking himself how it was possible that this beautiful girl was in his arms, and praying that this would last.
Hermione, relieved, lay her head down on his chest, smiling.
"Can I see Potter's reaction when you tell him this?" asked Draco.
"No," replied Hermione calmly.
"Can I see Weasel's, then?" smirked Draco.
"No," repeated Hermione just as calmly.
"Please," begged Draco.
Hermione shook her head to say no, and in a matter of seconds, she doze off, thinking about how incredible life would be if this night never ended.