Harry Potter

And the Fight for Dramione

Chapter 3: A Week of Nonsense


In the week following up to Slughorn's Christmas Party, Draco Malfoy appeared to run hot and cold. Hermione, had not let on to anyone, as of yet, that she was, in fact, taking their arch enemy as her date to the party. She couldn't even get the fact through her own head and was wondering if, perhaps, the workload was starting to get to her, making her cross that thin line between sane and insane.

She was not the only one who seemed to be questioning their sanity. However, Malfoy made it a little more obvious by tracking her down all week with warnings and such, or sometimes simply for no reason and he was at a loss for words. None the less, Hermione was getting a little sick of his sudden mood and personality swings.

He started approaching her on Monday. She was in a hallway on her way to Athrimacy and he had accosted her, dragged her out of the rush of people and taken her into a broom closet.

His expression was hard and his grip quite firm as he glared at her for a moment, his eyes glinting in the dark cupboard.

When he didn't speak, Hermione frowned at him. "Did you drag me in here for any particular reason…or did it just strike you as a good idea at the time?" she asked dryly, trying vainly to get her arm out of his tight hold.

He released her quickly, as if only realising then that he had been holding her. He scowled. "Don't…tell anyone," he began harshly, "that we're both going to this…this party…with – to…" he seemed to be struggling for words, his mouth curled into an unpleasant snarl.

"Together?" prompted Hermione. A strange feeling went through Malfoy at these words; a tingling sensation of nervousness erupted in the pit of his stomach.

"Don't say it like that," he hissed angrily.

Hermione sighed, "It will be a little obvious that we are going together when we turn up at the party with each other."

Draco huffed in annoyance. "Let's hope the room is dark and everyone's had too much fire whisky then," he snarled.

"Look, if you don't want-"

But, Malfoy cut her off. He leant in so close to her face that the breath from his next few words tickled her sensitive skin. "Just keep it quiet. Got it?" he said lowly.

Then very quickly, he was out of the closest and lost amongst the throng of students still heading to class.

Hermione took a little longer to recuperate herself and her thoughts as for some reason she felt a little dazed. Pulling her backpack more securely onto her back she shook her head dizzily and quickly hurried to class, hoping Professor Vector wasn't there yet.


On Tuesday, Malfoy found her in the library; he had been watching her from behind a bookshelf, waiting for the stupid Potter to leave. Finally, 'The Chosen One', called it a night, bidding Hermione farewell; she was not yet finished.

Malfoy nearly rolled his eyes as she buried her bushy head amongst the millions of textbooks that seemed to surround her; she was such a bookworm.

He slid into the vacant seat beside her smoothly, pulling up a book so he could hide behind it like a shield. "Granger…" he hissed out of the corner of his mouth.

Hermione ignored him and continued to scribble neatly along her three foot long roll of parchment.

Malfoy frowned, "Granger!" he hissed again, glancing around to check that the library was, indeed, empty. When she didn't reply again, he read a sentence off her essay, tilting his head to the side so he could see it. "'Love is one of the most predominant Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental transfiguration, though there are ways to imitate love, it cannot be-"

"Malfoy!" snapped Hermione, finally looking up from her essay. "What do you want?"

Malfoy smirked, "Someone's touchy today," he drawled arrogantly.

Hermione made a sound of disgust, "You're so rude," she hissed, turning back to the paper before her.

Malfoy blanched, "Really? I thought this was me being polite…"

"Your etiquette and manners amaze me," sighed Hermione sarcastically, not looking up from her homework.

Malfoy scowled, "Well it's easy for you isn't it?" he snarled, "You're a precious little Gryffindor; everyone loves you! You're friends with 'The Chosen One', you're the 'smartest in our year'! If you tried living my life, you wouldn't make it through a day."

"Oh poor Draco Malfoy," Hermione said with a sneer, swinging round in her chair to face him finally. "Do you honestly think my life is really that simple and easy?"

"Yes," Malfoy snarled, narrowing his eyes, "I do."

"Then," snapped Hermione while she rolled her scroll up viciously and packed her books away, "You're a self-absorbed fool."

With that she swung her bulging backpack over her shoulder and stormed out of the library leaving Malfoy alone and insulted.


Wednesday was perhaps the most bizarre day of all. Malfoy spent his entire potion's class brooding while Hermione stubbornly ignored him and threw ingredients, a little too harshly, into her cauldron. However, at the end of the lesson while everyone exited the classroom, this time Potter was talking with Weasley, Malfoy stomped past Hermione and threw a scrunched up piece of parchment at her.

The ball of paper hit her in the face before bouncing down into the pile of books laden in her arms. She threw him a dirty look, but he didn't turn around. So, still with a scowl in place she balanced her books in one arm and unfolded the messy paper.

A small smile tugged the corner of her mouth as much as she tried to stop it and she folded the paper back up, carefully tucking the sheet into the inner pocket of her robes. The words scribbled upon the small letter still blazing in her mind… 'I'm sorry – Draco'

Perhaps the animosity between Gryffindor and Slytherin wasn't so hopeless. Perhaps a friendship could be possible…


By Thursday, however, Malfoy's mood had turned fowl again. He was paler than ever before and there was an ugly snarl constantly upon his face. Hermione was the one to stop him this time in the corridors. In fact, she passed him in a corridor on the seventh floor, the corridor that ran straight past the room of requirement.

"Malfoy, I-" she barely got the words out before the furious boy before her cut her off.

"Don't talk to me," he snarled, his voice so harsh Hermione nearly felt it slap her across the face.

He stormed past her, dragging a hand through his hair, his eyes distressed, dark and almost panicked. Hermione watched him walk away, a slight frown creasing her forehead; there was something going on with him, and it had to be something big; she had never seen Draco Malfoy so…worried.

But, by Friday, the morning before the party, Hermione lost all patience.

She walked out of the girl's bathroom, it was lunch time so there was currently no one about as most were still eating, and Malfoy sauntered up to her.

"Granger, I want-"

However, before Malfoy could get the words out, Hermione had grabbed the front of his robes, spun him round and shoved him against the wall with more strength than he realised she had.

A small thrill of excitement ran through Malfoy as his back hit the stone wall behind him, Hermione's furious face rather close to his. He breathed in quickly for a moment, not feeling at all intimidated as Hermione had hoped.

"Look, here Draco Malfoy," she hissed angrily, "You were the one who chose to say yes to come to this stupid party with me. I didn't make you. You're the one who keeps choosing to come over to me in the hallways. Not me. So you need to decide whether or not you are going to treat me nicely or ignore me," Hermione had to take a few steadying breaths, "Because I'm sick of all your snide comments followed by apologies that are only to be followed by more snide comments. Make up your damn mind."

Hermione dropped his robes and he stared at her, his eyes wide and his heart beating a lot faster than should be normal.

"If you decide to stop being a moody idiot, then meet me in the Entrance Hall at eight thirty to go to Slughorn's party. If not, then I will go alone." With that, Hermione dusted herself off, swung round and stormed off, her bushy hair bouncy with every step; Malfoy's eyes following her all the way down the hall.


"Are you still trying reckless, unauthorized spells from that book?" asked Hermione sternly, her hands on her hips and a frown on her face as she stared at the pleading boy before her, one of his eyebrows a remarkable yellow.

Harry nearly sighed in exasperation, "Hermione, no. Not recently, can you ju-"

"Are you planning to?"

"Some time I might, there is nothing wrong with them-"

"Harry. Those spells aren't ministry approved, you could-"

"Hermione. If you don't fix my eyebrow then Luna is going to come to Slughorn's party with one to match."

"You're taking Luna?" she asked surprised, forgetting to use her stern voice for a moment. "That's really nice of you, Harry."

"Good, that's good. Do you want to fix nice Harry's eyebrow now?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and muttered the incantation under her breath while she pointed her wand at Harry's face.

"Thank you!" he sighed with relief, feeling a slight tingling sensation beneath the hair's above his eye signalling that his eyebrow was back to it's original colour. Hermione shook her head bemusedly, but at that exact moment, Ron walked into the common room and for once Lavender wasn't in his stead.

He walked up to them hesitantly and Hermione pursed her lips in an almost Petunia like way, her eyes narrowing. But, then she realised something. This whole week she had not even thought about Ron, well except that morning when he did a horrible imitation of her in Transfiguration. But, even that had not bothered her too a great extent as she had been distracted by Malfoy who subtly turned Ron's quill into a spider when he hadn't been looking.

When Ron had turned around to pick up his quill he'd screamed like a girl and turned his desk on its head. She was trying not to feel guilty about the fact that she had found the whole scenario quite hilarious.

"Well," she said, interrupting whatever Ron had been saying, "I'm off to get ready for the party." She beamed brightly at Harry, ignoring Ron completely and hurried over to the stairs to the girl's dormitory.

She couldn't deny the fact that she really hoped Malfoy would show up.


Wow, thanks for all of the reviews everyone! They're seriously awesome and make me want to update faster lol. Ooh and the anonymous review from Teamharrypotter you made my world. Haha, thank so much for you review! And thank you heaps to all of the other anonymous reviews! You guys are groovy XD Cookies for everyone! Oh and just to let everyone know, updates will normally be pretty frequent, so every one to three days normally =) But, anyway, whatcha think of this chappiieee?