Chapter Three: Maybe You Should've Been In Slytherin All Along
"We can talk about your freaky wandless magic later." he brushed off, trying not to wind her up anymore in her upset state. He pushed between her shoulder blades, urging her forward as they ran through the dark trees until they reached a clearing. They stopped immediately as they both stepped out into the moonlit space, a large pond just a step in front of them.
Draco breathed a shaky sigh of relief that he caught himself before he ran straight into the dark waters.
"I have to get back to the Order." Hermione said, catching her breath as she dropped to her knees. She ripped her bag over her head, tearing though it on the ground. She could feel her enemies eyes on her every move but she didn't have the time to care or respond to his burning stare.
"And just how are you going to go about doing that? The castle is crawling with death eaters whose only goal is to get their hands on the little Gryffindor bookworm." he questioned, muttering a spell under his breath before raising his hands to the area around them.
"Why not just cast a self protection spell? No need to bring me into the safe circle, Malfoy. I'm sure you would love to see what they would do to me." she reached into her bag until she was elbow deep, pulling a small blue vile from the bottom and bringing it immediately to her lips.
"If I wanted to watch them break you I would have left you on that staircase for the torture party and stood back laughing." he snapped back at her, storming over to her and grabbing her forearms tight in his hands, pulling her up to stand with nothing gentle in his actions or his eyes.
"If you think for one damn second instead of making bloody assumptions, you would see my intentions clear as they can be." he said, biting the inside of his mouth to keep himself from screaming at the small witch in front of him.
"Why don't you just tell me?" she begged, her voice a soft whisper as she looked up into his eyes with questions.
"Because." he started, rolling his eyes and throwing her arms away from him as if her flesh was burning his fingertips. He stepped back from her. "You wouldn't believe a word of it and I would have exposed emotions like a damn Hufflepuff for no reason. Besides, I don't want you to start getting daft ideas that I care in that obnoxious head of yours. Now let's shove on." he said quickly, a smirk resuming its usual spot across his lips before he turned his back to her and started walking across the length of the clearing until he reached the opposite side lined with more dark trees and undoubtedly more enemies.
"Hey!" she called, slinging her bag over her head to fall across her body before she jogged across the way to meet him.
"I don't want to hear your blubbering right now. Let's just get back to this Order of yours and where ever it is they reside and we can get away from one another sooner rather then later. We don't have time for chit chat, Princess." he replied quickly, turning back away from her to step into the forest, his palm up in front of him as a defense.
"Malfoy." she called, following at his heels. He didn't falter in the slightest. Not only ignoring her but acting as though she didn't deserve the least of his attention.
"Malfoy." she called out again, louder this time as she stopped walking and watched his back as he took a few more steps. He halted when he didn't hear her mocking footsteps mirroring his but didn't turn around.
"We don't have time for this, mudblood. Let's haul ass. Now." he said, intimidation in his tone even though she couldn't see his face.
Of all the things he expected her to scream, yell, and curse him for, he never expected what she called out to him.
"Don't call me that." she whispered, her voice barely carrying over enough for him to hear. He looked over his shoulder to glance back at her.
"Never seemed to bother you before. The past 7 years you acted as though it didn't phase you." he countered. "Drove me mad." he muttered, still not turning around completely. She stood her ground a few feet from him firmly, looking at the side of his face as she grew more and more frustrated with each passing second.
"I didn't care about anything that came out of your mouth back then. That seems like a whole other life. Not much time has past but a lot has changed and the last 7 years don't matter now. This is a war and I can't be the strong one anymore that turns off her emotions so that nothing hurts her. So please don't call me that anymore, Malfoy." she explained, tears filling her eyes but never falling as the vulnerability in them causing her enemy to turn around completely.
He kept his lips pressed into a hard line as his eyes emptied of any empathy towards her words. But as she continued, he let it slip and she saw a flash of softness cross his features that she swore she must have imagined.
"Because I am a fighter but I am not the same girl you pushed around when we were fourteen. The things you say and do to me now..." she shook her head and looked across the clearing at him as the moonlight lit up the rippling water beside them both. "I feel that and it hurts. So have at it coming up with horrible names and words that get to me but please don't call me that." she said, her voice begging in a way he thought hed never hear from her.
"I'll have to come up with something else then." he replied coldly, looking her up and down as her red t shirt bunched up above her stomach and he could see how low her muggle jeans rode on her hips after their escape and vigorous running. "Now lets go, Princess. I don't know about you but I rather not be captured tonight." he urged, waving her over with annoyance as he pushed on into the forest, the dark haired witch jogging to catch up with him.
"How are you not freezing to death right now? You're in muggle attire and there's frost on the bloody trees. You're a right moron for walking around in the winter with barely anything on." he asked as the pair of them found their way out of the dark forest. Hermione led the way to the only place she knew they could travel from, Malfoy right at her heels.
She pulled her shirt down hard over her hips subconsciously and bowed her head as she walked briskly, letting her hair shield her face like a dark curtain. "I wasn't really thinking I would be gallivanting around in the snow when I dressed this morning. So excuse me if my clothes bother you." she shot back, rolling her eyes as she felt his stare burn had into her back.
"Calm down calm down." he said, holding his hands up in mock surrender. "I was just making conversation. No need to be so damn defensive." They stopped in front of a small hut that made Hermione breath a sigh of relaxation.
"Really? You want to ask the giant oaf to save you? He's dumber then your boyfriend." Draco said as he followed her up the front steps to the entrance. She waved her hand over the knob before stepping back, letting the door swing open in response to the silent spell.
"He's not dumb and if you are referring to Ronald, he is hardly my boyfriend." She shot back at him. "And I am not going to involve Hagrid in this. We are simply going to use his floo to get back to the Order." she explained, checking the small kitchen before meeting Draco back in front of the brick fireplace.
"Correction, Granger." Draco said harshly, locking the door before advancing towards the brown eyed witch. "You are going to the Order. I am going to go back to the manor and pretend that I had my damn filthy way with you before you ran off so that I am not killed in the center of my dining room for my blood to stain my mothers good silver." He cornered her against the wall right beside the fireplace, her back hitting a small bookcase sending a small vase of lilies shattering to the floor, pain flashing across her eyes when she was forced hard against her will.
"Why do you have to do that?" she exclaimed, her hands hard on his chest as he pressed up against her, his eyes locked on hers.
"Calm down, you don't look scared." he said, his hands pressed to the wall over her head as he leaned in close to her.
"Well, I am. Does that make you feel good, Malfoy? Because I am scared. You fucking scare me." she screamed, shoving against his chest to no avail.
"No need to be scared, Princess." Draco spat, pushing away from her, her back pressed harder against the bookcase for a moment as she winced. "If I wanted you, I would have already had you. But I don't. And why the hell would I? You're revolting and the thought of you makes me more turned off then I've ever been."
"That's strange." she whispered, a stream of tears escaping her dark brown eyes to stain a trail down her cheek as his words hit her immediately in the heart. "Because every time you are near me, like you were just now, you look like you want to kiss me." she said, her voice timid as if she expected him to smack her across the face for those few short words.
"More like slap you." he muttered. "You're delusional, mudblood." he said louder now, smirking as her face reacted painfully to the slur. "You wouldn't even know what that looks like on a man."
"So, that's your way of these things, is it?" she said, her eyes doing nothing to hide the reaction to his words. "You did a nice thing so you have to ruin it. You saved me so now you are resorting back to the part of you that was raised to hurt and pillage and destroy any shred of decency in you before anyone can see it. Well, it's too late." she said, blinking back the tears as they glazed over her dark brown eyes. She watched him collapse on to the couch casually as he lounged against it, his foot hanging off one end. "I already saw it in you."
Malfoy sneered in response as if her words were so far off base he couldn't even understand them. He glanced over at her just a few inches from him, her back still against the book case. Whether it was from the pain of being shoved against it or the lack of motivation to move, he didn't want to consider.
"You really shouldn't instigate the enemy, Granger." he threatened, standing up from the couch and invading her space with two long strides, his fingers digging into her waist while his other hand grabbed her throat, rewarding him a small gasp of struggling breath from his classmate.
"I told you I would let you go on your way back to your little group of do-gooders and I would go back to my home and tell them that I raped and destroyed the mudbloods innocence. Don't make me turn those lies into facts." he seethed, tightening the hold on her neck until she was clawing at his hand.
"Draco." she mumbled as she struggled for each small breath that made it to her lungs. The sound of his first name on her lips made him drop her immediately, her body crashing to the ground as she took several long, deep breaths while hunched over on her knees.
"Don't say my name ever again, mudblood." he warned, taking a step back to watch her grab her throat in pain. He let his eyes skim her back as she keeled over on the ground, her shirt riding up to expose her entire back while she inhaled deeply with shaky, uneven breaths.
"Do not forget that I'm one of the Death Eaters you are running from. Just because I helped you back at the castle for my own benefit doesn't mean we are friends. Let's stick with last names like we have all these years. Now, get a move on. Ladies first." he said, the same smug look on his face that she remembered all too well as he swung his arm towards the fireplace.
"What about you?" she asked, a small cough escaping her throat as she stood in front of the portal.
"You've got to be kidding me." he whispered to himself, pinching the spot between his eyes in frustration as he shut them tight for a moment. "Dont you get it, Granger!" he yelled, throwing his hands up with anger as fell back down on the couch, his back slamming hard against the cushions.
"You think I like being this way, Malfoy?" she replied, her own eyes narrowing with her growing annoyance. She stepped up to him, standing in front of the couch between his knees, looking down at him with chocolate irises that were dark with rage.
"You think I want to give a damn about what happens to you? Because I don't! I want to be like you; I want to not care about anyone and just do whatever I bloody feel like but I can't!" she exclaimed, staring down at him, his blue eyes catching hers as they shot back up at her words with anger.
"I still remember your body withering in pain on the floor of my own home, Princess." He spat, his fingers digging into his knees. "And if my aunt had asked me to join her in the torture, I would have gladly done so. And if you are captured today or in ten damn years and I am told to rape you or kill you or whatever it is they wish of me, I will do it. You'd be wise to remember that next time you start to feel anything less then hate towards me." he explained, disgust in his words. That didn't surprise her.
What surprised her, however, was that the disgust seemed to be with himself and not at all with her.
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