Intoxicate Me
Hermione adjusted her red and yellow tie, loosening its grip on her neck. She brushed the stray hairs off her face and tucked them carefully behind her ear, before exiting her room and carefully shutting the door behind her quietly.
She had learned on her first few days here that she was usually gone well before Draco had even woken up, and so out of courtesy, she now tried to be as quiet as possible in the morning. So imagine her surprise when Hermione heard someone clearing his throat a fair distance behind her.
She jumped up, startled, and turned around to see Draco shutting his own door across the common area between them. The fire cackled quietly between them as a silence settled in.
Hermione brushed the imaginary lint off her skirt and cleared her throat. "So…."
Draco busily cuffed his sleeves and buttoned the remaining buttons on his shirt.
"You're not red anymore." Once the words left her mouth, she cursed herself inwardly. What a stupid thing to say! She should have just left.
He looked up. "Indeed I'm not," he replied, almost mocking her question, and paused for a moment, before continuing. "Neat spell you used on me Granger. Not bad."
Hermione knew it was a compliment. But also knew it to be a challenge as well. She finally stopped her mindless brushing and looked at him. "The food colouring wasn't bad either Malfoy," she replied.
He nodded, acknowledging her response.
Both stood awkwardly on opposite sides of the room for a few moments longer.
Draco was the first to move, heading towards the exit without another word. Hermione followed, shaking her head behind her. The portrait swung open for him, and Draco ducked through the entrance. He was about to head off before a call stopped him.
"Hey Malfoy." He turned around and waited as Hermione stepped out of the room behind him.
"What?"
She straightened and faced him. "Should I be scared you haven't done anything yet?" She smirked at the tease.
He couldn't help a small grin. "You should always be scared around me Granger," he answered, before turning back around. He began walking away. "Later Granger," he added, just before he disappeared around the corner.
Hermione remained in her position, momentarily stunned. Did Draco Malfoy just smile? At her?
She forced her legs to move, heading towards the great hall after Draco. He really had smiled. How could such a small smile change a person so much. Something wasn't right. Her brows knitted together in confusion. Was he planning something? Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. He had to be planning something.
Revenge maybe? She bit her lip. Now she really was scared. She thought back to his smile, and realized that his smile was probably more dangerous than the man himself.
Not because it was intoxicating, because she knew it was. It was that, it almost made him seem…innocent. It almost made her forget, even if only for the moment that it was on his face, that he was completely evil. Utter evil.
Hermione frowned.
"Is something wrong Hermione?"
Hermione snapped out of her thoughts to see Ron and Harry sitting in front of her. She realized that she had already made it to her seat. She smiled and shook her head. "No, just thinking about something," she replied as she took a seat beside Ron.
"When are you not thinking about something Hermione?" Ron asked, scooting over to give her room.
She laughed. "Not everyone can be like you Ron," she replied back.
"Hey!"
Harry laughed. "Good one Hermione. So did you see Draco this morning?"
"Yeah actually, I did this morning."
"Was he angry?" Ron asked through a mouthful of food.
"That's gross Ron," Hermione replied, wrinkling her nose in disgust. She nodded as Ginny sat down opposite them, before continuing. "No actually, he was in a pretty good mood I think."
"Are we talking about Malfoy?" Ginny asked as she forked some pancakes onto her plate. "Cause yeah, I see him laughing over there." Ginny nodded towards a laughing group of Slytherins. "Weird."
"For a guy who's just been pranked, he seems oddly unaffected," Harry observed, quickly glancing towards where Ginny had been pointing towards.
"Doesn't that just scare you more?" Hermione asked, taking a sip of her drink.
"Absolutely," Ginny agreed after swallowing. "Anyways, speaking of Malfoy, his Slytherin team looks pretty good this year Harry."
"He has a pretty well-rounded team this year," Harry agreed reluctantly after consideration, "I looked at their posted tryout results this morning. Griffins as keeper was a bad decision though. That's their weak link."
Ron nodded, eager for a conversation not about Malfoy. "The Ravenclaw team is looking pretty decent this year too. I think they might have a chance this year."
"Have you chosen the team yet Harry?" Hermione asked, participating lightly in the conversation. Quidditch was never her thing really.
"Mostly, but there's still another tryout left today after class. I'll be posting the team list tomorrow morning."
"I think all the teams have a good chance this year," Ginny added thoughtfully.
"So it's going to be pretty even this year I think," Blaise continued. "It's going to be interesting."
"But the Gryffindors haven't posted their team yet," Theodore Nott pointed out.
"Their teams never that bad anyways," Blaise shrugged. "Potter's annoying, but he's a good enough captain. You have to give him that. What do you think Draco?"
Draco, hearing his name, pulled his eyes from the group of Gryffindors. "Yeah, yeah," he replied mindlessly.
Blaise gave Draco a questioning look. "Why were you looking at Potter?"
"Potter? I wasn't looking at Potter," Draco sneered.
"Then who? Weasley? Weaslette? Or Granger?" Nott urged, with a smirk.
"Granger probably," Blaise answered, ignoring Draco, "finding a way to get her back?"
Draco turned towards them finally. "Huh? What? Oh. Yeah, yeah."
"Don't you have patrol with her today? Do something then," Blaise pointed out.
"Too obvious," Draco answered, waving him off. "I nearly forgot I had duty tonight actually."
"Wouldn't blame you buddy," Nott muttered. "She's probably going to lecture you on the effects of plagart."
"Extracting her revenge by boring me to death probably," Draco snickered, casting a glance at the group of them. He watched her as she told a story to her friends and realized with a shock that he didn't really believe what he had just said. Hermione Granger wasn't as dull as he had thought her to be. Who knew she had it in her?
The day passed by rather uneventfully for Hermione. Arithmancy was a little difficult as they took notes on a new concept today. History of Magic wasn't as bad as it could have been. The Slytherins in her class had been tolerable, which was much better than usual. Draco hadn't talked to her, which was fine with her. That also meant he hadn't gotten her back yet.
Double charms was the best class of the day, as they had learned a new spell, and after mastering it in half the given time, she had used the rest of the time to finish the write up on that spell, which meant no homework for that class. Transfiguration was probably the most difficult class of the day. They had to transform moving objects, which created complete chaos in the classroom as students chased their scurrying rats around the room. But all in all, it was a fairly normal day at Hogwarts.
She yawned as she finished the remainder of her potions essay, scribbling on her name at the front and the date. She looked at the time as she packed her quill and ink away. Seven thirty. He was late.
She shook her head and sighed, standing up off the common room carpet and gathering her materials. Just as she was about to head to her room to drop her things off, the door swung open.
"Punctuality is a virtue," she said, altering the saying 'patience is a virtue', without looking at him. She walked around the couch and towards her room.
"Lucky I'm not virtuous then, right Granger?" he unfastened his gloves, and threw them on the common room table.
Hermione did her best to ignore the innuendo of his words.
"Don't you have any consideration for other people Malfoy?" Granger said as she emerged from her room after dropping her things off.
"Oh right, patrol."
"You forgot?!"
"I'm only late," he looked at the clock, "15 minutes."
"It's not so much how late you were, but just that you were late."
"Get over it Granger."
"Sorry Hermione. Next time I won't be late. That's not hard to say is it?" Hermione said, dropping herself onto a couch.
He sneered. "Something you should know about me Granger…I don't make promises I don't intend on keeping."
"Ugh!" Hermione threw her hands up in the air. "You're impossible. Can we just go now?"
"No, I'm going to shower first," Draco replied, as if it were the most logical thing.
Hermione stared at him in disbelief. "You're late, and now you're going to take a shower."
"Is there a problem?" Draco asked, unfastening his quidditch robe.
"Um…" Hermione pretended to think. "Yes. Maybe the fact that I'm tired of waiting and I want to get this over with?"
"Think about it this way Granger. It's a shower, or you're going to be smelling this loveliness," he lifted his arm to exaggerate his point, "all night long. You being friends with Potty and Weasley should know how great we smell after a nice quidditch practice right?"
She sniffed the air, and wrinkled her nose. "Ew, fine whatever shower. Just hurry it up okay Narcissus."
"I don't know if that was supposed to be a diss or not Granger. For one, Narcissus was the most beautiful god. If that was what you were insinuating then—"
"Oh in your dreams Malfoy." Hermione crossed her arms.
Draco shrugged. "Well anyways, if I was Narcissus, while you one day may have a boring book named after you Granger, I get a pretty little flower."
"You were going to shower Malfoy, remember?"
He rolled his eyes as he walked into the washroom. "Yes mother."
"You're a prick you know that?" she called loudly through the door. Draco laughed as he abandoned his clothes and stepped into the shower.
Outside, Hermione sighed, sinking into the couch. She picked up one of her old books lying on the table and opened it to a random page, beginning to read.
"Reading like the bookworm that you are?" Draco asked, as he ran a towel through his damp hair.
Hermione looked up, and faltered for a moment. Many people thought that Draco had no effect on her. But she doubted that anybody could be unaffected. It was merely that she refused to let herself become affected.
She ignored his snub and pointed towards the new addition to the common room she had just conjured up.
"What is that?" he asked, dropping the towel over the back of a chair.
"It's a whiteboard Draco." She grabbed her wand and pointed towards it, writing in the air as the words she wrote appeared on the board. "Just in case you forget again you know."
He read the words. "Head's meeting tomorrow." He turned to Hermione. "When did we have a head's meeting?"
"Oh I don't know, since the beginning of the year maybe? You know, the monthly meeting we planned to have with Dumbledore?"
Draco still looked confused.
"Let's try this another way. From now on, every last Thursday of each month we have a meeting with Dumbledore at seven. Not seven fifteen."
Draco smirked. "How about seven thirty?"
Hermione slammed her book shut and groaned. She put her book down and stood up. "Can we please just go? It's nearly 8."
Draco followed as Hermione headed towards the door. "No but I'm serious, how about seven thirty? I have a date."
"A date. A date? I have one word for you Draco," Hermione said through gritted teeth as her patience was wearing thing. "6 letters. Can you guess what it is?"
"Great, with an exclamation point?" he asked as she ducked through the entrance.
"No, cancel. C-A-N-C-E-L," Hermione answered, annoyed. She got through the entrance and straightened, finally noticing the presence of another person. "Oh, um. Hi."
"Why would I cancel Granger?" Draco asked as he too exited the common room. "Granger?" he asked as he noticed her nodding towards something behind him. He turned around. "Alicia."
The girl nodded. "I've been waiting for you Draco."
Hermione groaned inwardly. At this rate, they would never start patrol, much less finish. She looked around awkwardly. "Oh um…well this isn't weird at all. Okay, um…I forgot something in the comm—in there. I might be a while." She hurriedly mumbled the password to the man in the portrait and climbed through.
She sank back onto the couch and picked up her book once again. It was going to be a long night.
A/N: Ok, here it is! :) Next chapter will be…a major argument between Draco and Hermione. :) I was going to put it in this chapter, but this was already like 2000 words so I'm going to save it for the next.
Anyways yeh, please review! I might redo this chapter. I mean, I'm sick and thats why I had time to write it. But at the same time, I have like a throbbing headache so I sorta just wanted to finish this chapter. PLEASE REVIEW! PLEASE PLEASE:)? I'll LOVE YOU FOREVER:) Oh, and so I think this week I have some time...so MAYBE if there are alot of reviews...I can post the next chap by Friday:) . I'll try anyways.