Shorter than expected, and earlier, but the next will be longer, don't worry. Also means it'll probably be longer before it comes out. Either way, enjoy. : ] Please review!
I'm on the outside, I'm looking in. I can see through you, see your true colors, cause inside you're ugly, you're ugly like me. I can see through you, see to the real you- [Outside] -Staind
Dumbledore has this certain look he always seems to give me when he knows I'm uncomfortable. It feels like he's trying to figure me out, crack some kind of code and make me feel guilty, like I actually did something wrong, even when I didn't.
He was gazing at me through those half-rimmed glasses, with those silvery blue eyes, and making me incredibly fidgety. It was even more annoying that whatever it was he was trying to achieve, he was doing so by slowly chipping away at my composure.
He seemed to be completely ignoring Granger, which was kind of strange, because she was speaking. Why he felt the need to stare at me the entire time she spoke, I didn't have a clue, but it was beginning to bug me.
I rounded my shoulders and crossed my arms, frowning at him. In response, his eyes seemed to sparkle even brighter. This annoyed me further for some reason.
"…so you see professor, I feel like it would be completely inappropriate for me to continue any further as head girl."
Those words, she just spoke them like the weren't the most astounding thing one person could ever hear, or say. I twisted my neck at her and let my hands drop to my side in a single motion that wasn't quite intentional. "What?" I barked, and for once her eyes snapped back towards me with defiance. There was a golden glow around her dark, narrowed pupils that pulsed and rippled in a way that was hypnotizing. I wondered if this was what Potter saw when he looked at her, and suddenly I was very jealous of the thought.
"You heard me," She snipped, and then I was looking at a fan of her hair as she turned back towards the headmaster. "Sir, I don't think it's best that I stay on as head girl. I'm not up to the job." She added meagerly, her hands clenching at her sides.
There was a peculiar burning present in my chest, and to mute the intensity of it each time I looked at Granger, I simply stared at the floor. It did little to help, but what else could I really do?
Dumbledore made an unusually disapproving sound. "Miss Granger, I think you and I both know that you're more than qualified for the job." I looked up in time to see him give her an oddly paternal, crinkly-eye'd smile. "I chose you Miss Granger, because you are the correct choice."
From the corner of my eye I saw her shaking her head and I suddenly became rather miffed.
So she wanted to run away, huh? Not while I was watching. She wouldn't escape me.
Granger had something coming to her, and I was going to be the one to put her in her place. "Sir," both of them turned their attention, "If Granger's getting a pass, I want one."
The highly irritated snort she gave me was music to my ears. "What are you talking about now, Malfoy?" She groaned like a rusty door hinge.
"I said, if you're getting out of doing this work, then so am I. I didn't want to be head boy either." I plastered on my very best smirk and it made her frown intensify, "You've saved me the trouble of bringing it up myself."
The look that colored her pretty face made my adrenaline skyrocket. It was such a pleasant rush that I had come to love so much. I didn't realize how much I really missed that frown, those scorching, angry eyes and those squared shoulders.
"I must say," Dumbledore's solemn tone turned her face away from me, and I was surprised by how disappointed I was to lose her attention, "I'm disappointed in you both. I chose the two of you as head students, and my decision is final." His eyes bore into me, and Granger seemed to be shaking from her place off to my side. "You will have to learn to work together eventually, but I will not remove either of you from your position."
Granger seemed to be too respectful of him to argue, but I bloody hell wasn't. However something stopped me from speaking against his decision, and I found myself grinding my words against my teeth and swallowing them down.
Maybe it was the way Granger's entire person seemed to be shaking, and maybe it was because my heart was beating so fast I was almost dizzy with excitement, and a hint of annoyance. Whatever the reason, Dumbledore's smile returned in the absence of our resistance.
"Very well then, you may return to your dorms. Keep in mind that you have more duties this year than your previous year as prefects, and that you should work together to complete them. I'm not saying it will be easy," He added, "but you two will have to be cooperative to complete them. I expect no less from my head boy and head girl than civility."
"Yes headmaster." It was a low, reluctant, and dejected, and it made my fingers clench into their own fist.
I did not respond in any way, I simply turned to let myself out. Granger was following suit, but even as we did the same thing, side by side, with the same expression marring our faces, we were not a unit. We were simply two people who were stuck in the same situation.
I had a strange feeling, that nothing would be easy from this moment on. This was originally my goal in life; to make things difficult for the girl who currently trailing soundlessly, slowly, anxiously behind me down the spiral staircase. However, it was something like what would be considered a bad idea to make her life difficult, considering we would be working so closely together for the entire year.
It might be a bad idea for me to complicate things further, but then again, I would hardly be Draco Malfoy if I didn't make things difficult for myself.
"Granger," I began the sentence in what had become the norm, with the same tone, the same expression, and it was met with the same annoyance, and the same Gryffindor like sigh, "Seems like we really are stuck together." I had really began to like the way the echo in this particular stairway made my voice so much more powerful and effectively crude. "Our last ditch attempts to drop each other failed." She wasn't really speaking to me, and seeing as how she was behind me, I couldn't see her, but I could feel her frustration. "So let's just get this straight," I did stop and turn around at this time, and it nearly caused a collision.
It was a cramped space that was made more constricting by the tension as I loomed over her. She looked smaller than I remember her. Much less defiant and strong, but there was still a indication of unwillingness there in the deep of her eyes that made me deliver my speech with the hopes that she would fight back. "You will not make my life miserable this year. This is supposed to be my golden year, and I will not spend it wasting my time with you." I ground out and her previously locked tight jaw snapped open in an instant.
There was something like enjoyment in me when she gazed up into my eyes without indecision, or fright, only bitterness. "You think I wanted to be stuck with you, Malfoy?" She shook her head and her wild hair bounced in her eyes briefly. She annoyingly pushed it back into place with her petite, smooth hand.
It was frustrating that I was so excited to see her cross her arms over her chest, and stand her ground. "Guess what Malfoy, this is going to be hell for the both of us. So just get out of my face and don't make this any harder than it already is."
I gave her a sneer, "You think you're in hell now," My words rebounded off the walls and into her face, but she seemed to be unaffected by the threat underneath them, "get in my way Granger, and I'll really show you what it's like to be in hell." The prospect of actually trying to deliver that promise was exceedingly enchanting. It was suddenly laborious to breath, and my hands were trembling with elation.
She was too much. Too daring, defiant, beautiful, unforgiving, intelligent and fearless. It was too much to turn down.
It seemed that at this time, she was not going to grace me with a response, no matter how clever of one I'm sure she could produce. Rather she gave me something much more astounding, extreme, entertaining. Her hands came up in what felt like a cut scene, all went quiet, and my blood pounded in my ears as she laid those tiny hands on me, and in one instance, she pushed me aside and took flight down the stairs. It startled me the strength she used, and I stumbled, my back landing a little painfully against the wall. She was around the corner and out of sight before I even had time to recover.
Standing there, my chest heaving, adrenaline-charged and undeniably, confusingly pleased with myself, it was proving it be more than delightful to be paired with Hermione Granger this year. It was going to be a long, but incredibly fun year indeed.