Hermione ushered the group of men down to the Harpies' locker room, which was situated in a hallway off of the pitch. The scent of grass met her nostrils and she hummed happily, she may not like the sport very much, but she did love the smell of it. They walked down the stone hallway, her heels clicked musically on the cobblestone, but it was quickly drowned out by the hoots and hollers of victory.
"Here we are gentlemen."
Hermione held the locker room door open for her colleagues, letting them pass through ahead of her. However, she blocked the entrance with her arm when Draco tried to walk through,
"You may have just seriously fucked this up."
All of her pleasantries were gone and she pressed her pointer finger into his chest to punctuate her point. Draco looked down, and raised a questioning eyebrow at her hushed outburst.
"We may be walking into a very irate Ronald Weasley, as this is his sister's team. He is less than pleased about us working together. I'll try to contain it the best that I can, but he is a loose cannon."
To her utter annoyance Malfoys usual smirk grew into a wide Cheshire grin,
"Are you saying that Weasel-bee is jealous of me? I'm not surprised mind-you…"
Hermione smacked his chest crossly,
"Is that what you've gathered from this conversation? Please, for the sake of business, do not antagonize him."
She pushed the door open again and shoved her way past him into the locker room. It was crowded with friends of the team and a few journalists from various papers. The Frenchmen were engaged in an exciting chat with the Captain of the team. Hermione spotted bright red hair, but luckily it was the youngest Weasley that caught her eyes. A surprised grin plastered her friend's face when she noticed Hermione walking towards her, cracking the dried blood that she had neglected to clean off her face due to all of the excitement of the victory,
"Mione! You made it!"
Ginny grabbed her in a bone crushing hug, pushing all the air from Hermione's lungs. She managed to struggle away, pulling her wand out and quickly cleaning her friend's faces which drew a sheepish grin from Ginny.
"You played brilliantly Gin, I'm glad that I could make it."
"Well he's certainly grown up, hasn't he?"
Ginny wasn't looking at her anymore, she was staring intently over Hermione's shoulder. Hermione looked behind her to see who she was ogling, raising her eyebrows when she realized it was Draco Malfoy of all people. Draco was currently in a deep conversation with the Harpies' seeker, who seemed unable to keep her hands off of him – laughing playfully at whatever he had said.
What's with these women tonight?
Hermione rolled her eyes and returned her gaze to Ginny, who appeared to be undressing the blonde with her eyes. Snapping her fingers in her friend's face she managed to regain her attention,
"You cannot be serious Ginerva."
"What?! I may be engaged but I still have eyes!"
Ginny gave him a final look from head to toe, before returning her gaze to her friend,
"No wonder Ronald is jealous."
Hermione sighed deeply and chewed the inside of her cheek,
"Speaking of Ron, we won't be staying long. I really don't want a full out brawl in the middle of your dressing room."
"Gwenog would love it. Maybe I'd get a raise if I told her I was the one who orchestrated it."
Hermione laughed heavily,
"I really don't want to hang around to find out."
She was interrupted by a warm hand on her lower back,
"Mademoiselle Hermione, we are going to head back for the night. Thank you for such an enjoyable night."
"Oh Marquis, please let me get you back to the apparition point."
The French man held up his hand to her,
"No problem at all my dear. Please enjoy some time with your friends."
He smoothly kissed Ginny's hand before placing a chaste kiss on Hermione's cheek. Hermione wasn't about to argue with the Minister, but she really didn't want to be in this room any longer. So she politely said her good-byes to the group before they quickly filed out of the room.
"Gin it was great watching you play, but I need to get Malfoy out of her before World War 3 starts."
Ginny hugged her once more and laughed lightly,
"Good luck. Genevieve looks like she has her claws deep in him and doesn't look like she wants to let go."
It was true, the seeker was enraptured in her conversation with the Malfoy heir. She was running her long fingers along the handsome blonde's bicep in a predatory way. The pair didn't notice Hermione had joined them until she coughed.
"Can't you see we're busy having a conversation?"
Genevieve said scathingly, her perfectly shaped eyebrow arched aggressively at Hermione.
"While I'm sure it is quite riveting,"
Hermione retorted, unable to help herself from meeting the girl's snarky tone,
"Malfoy we need to get going."
"Hold onto your knickers Granger."
Malfoy seemed to be enjoying her anxiousness, much to Hermione's chagrin, causing her to resort to childish antics. She grabbed onto his side underneath his blazer and twisted the skin as hard as she could eliciting a hiss and a glare from him, but she refused to back down,
"Genevieve, it has been such a pleasure,"
His tongue rolled smoothly over the word, and the seeker blushed prettily as he held her hand to his mouth and lightly touched her knuckles with his lips,
"However, I must take my leave before my colleague implodes."
Hermione roughly grabbed Malfoy's arm before the dark haired witch could do anything else to distract him and dragged him towards the door. Once they were out of the room she rounded on him, but the blonde was quicker,
"Way to be a massive cock-block Granger, she looked like fun."
"For God's sake Malfoy, I told you before we went in there that it might cause shit, I wanted to get out as quickly as possible. But no, you got bloody distracted by your prick."
"If I didn't know any better I'd think that you were jealous Granger."
"Oh please, get over yourself. I know that it's difficult with stupid witches constantly inflating your deranged ego."
Hermione sidled up to him, leaning up against him and mockingly batting her eyes,
"Draco Malfoy it must be such difficult work carrying that massive head around all day. You must be so exhausted."
Malfoy snorted at her, but he seemed to be at least slightly amused by her actions,
"Oh Granger believe me, I have the stamina. But do tell me, is your ass sore from riding that high horse of yours?"
Draco called her bluff and stepped towards her, she hadn't realized how tall he was until he was leering down at her. Hermione blushed furiously, heat rising up into her chest, but despite herself she was smirking.
"Oi! What the fuck are you doing to her?! Get the hell away from my girlfriend before I hex your bollocks off."
Hermione went cold and jumped back from Malfoy, turning around to face the red-haired, red-faced, boyfriend she had been trying to avoid.
"Please Weasel, you wouldn't know the business end of a wand if it were shoved up your ass."
Malfoy drawled, leisurely turning to face the ginger, clearly not taking the threat seriously. This pissed Ron off more than he was initially, and he angrily fumbled around in his pocket for his wand. Luckily Harry had time to grab his friend's arm in an attempt to calm him down.
"Ron you're in no state to duel, and I really don't want to have to arrest you on my day off."
It didn't really work to calm his friend, but Ron seemed to realize he was too drunk to find his wand – let alone use it. So instead he stumbled forward and pressed his finger into Draco's chest in an attempt to intimidate him,
"If you touch Hermione again, I swear to Merlin…"
"Believe me Weasel, I have no intention to. But if I did, do you really think that you could stop me?"
Malfoy sneered, staring down at Ron's finger like it was the plague. Hermione's face was nearly as red as Ron's hair upon realizing a few people were peeking out of the locker room to catch a look at the commotion.
"Ronald, for Godric's sake, calm down. We're here on a business meeting, you're completely over reacting."
Ronald turned his glare to her, Hermione puffed up – refusing to be intimidated by him,
"I don't get it Hermione, why the fuck are you working with a bloody Death Eater. Malfoy of all people, after everything that we've been through with his lot."
Hermione's brows furrowed, and she stepped in towards Ron. Her voice was barely above a whisper,
"Inappropriate Ronald, he's been cleared of all charges - he was only a child. Please go in and see your sister, you're embarrassing me."
"Of course the Great Hermione Granger is embarrassed by measly Ronald Weasly. Too poor and too stupid to meet her standards."
"Is that really what you think of me? You need to shut your mouth and stop projecting your feelings onto me Weasley, I've done nothing but love you since I was fifteen."
Tears threatened to spill from Hermione's eyes, more out of frustration and embarrassment than anything else. She looked to Harry for help. He grabbed Ron around the shoulders and pulled him towards the locker room,
"Come on mate, let's go and see Ginny before this gets out of control. He's not worth it."
Somehow Harry managed to pull his friend away, but not before shooting Hermione a very pointed 'We'll talk about this later' look.
"You were the one telling me not to antagonize him, but I think you broke him Granger."
Hermione rolled her eyes at him and ran her fingers through her hair, which felt like it had doubled in size from all of the stress.
"I do not want to deal with that when I get home."
Hermione murmured, turning away from the people crowding at the door of the locker room – whispering intently at each other. Her face was deep red with embarrassment. Draco's voice pulled her out of her inner turmoil,
"Let's go grab a drink."
Hermione gaped at him, forgetting how to form words for a moment,
"You cannot be serious. That will definitely not make any of this better."
"Ah, but it can't get any worse…and you look like you need one. Plus you owe me a drink for putting me through all of this shit instead of having what would have been a wonderful one-night-stand with a professional Quidditch player."
Hermione groaned, but couldn't deny that drowning her stress in Firewhiskey sounded awfully fantastic.
"Fine Malfoy, just one drink."
