Authors notes

Hello again! So this is the first time the great hall will be destroyed! excited?

JK Rowling owns all, I'm just taking over for a while!


When Games get messy

Third person POV

It had been two weeks since Hermione was released from the infirmary. Two long weeks of having people ask her how she was doing. Of having aurors coming in to ask her about her parents death, the letter, and her search for the sender. Two long weeks of people tiptoeing around her. And it had been two very long weeks of being attached to Draco, and never getting a minute to herself.

And it was nothing against him personally; they had become quite friendly. It's just. One person can only stand being around another person, without breaks, for so long. She remembered being on the run with Harry and Ron, and all the times she'd wanted to hex them. But they would get a couple hours alone while they took watch, and she was finding herself to greatly missing that. Time alone.

She wasn't the only one. Draco had always been an independent person. He was an only child, and sure he had plenty of friends to play with. But it's not like having a sibling. Now that he'd been spending so much time with one person, he realized he was an idiot for always wishing he had one.

And he didn't mean it as an insult to Hermione. No he thought she was great. But he just wanted to be able to go places without having someone be attached to his side. He wanted to be able to do something whenever he felt like it, and not have to see if she wanted to as well.

And damnit, he missed flying.

It had always been a good stress reliever in his life, and he was stressed. It was weird for him. He hadn't been this edgy during the war, but he always felt like he was surrounded by broken glass.

They both felt that way. They were always trying to be careful what they said. They didn't want to get into any fights, what would they do then? Turn around? Hardly. Both were hotheaded, opinionated, and stubborn. They didn't want to risk having emotions running high, and still be forced together by magic.

Granted, they had noticed the spell giving them increasing amounts of space from the other. After a few days of being attached they noticed they were able to walk further and further apart. They estimated they had about six feet of space between them now, and they decided to take advantage of this by sitting opposite each other at the table. However, they still ended up falling off the bed when they tried to sleep on separate ones, but still, progress is progress.

Unfortunately, every morning when Pansy woke them her comments grew more suggestive. And every morning the pair of them took her a smidge more seriously.

It was a touchy subject. Who would want to put themselves out there, get rejected, and then still be stuck to them.

Suffice it to say, the sexual tension had been building in both parties for days. Everyone knew it, and there was a poll going on how long it would take before they broke.

Pansy had bet that it would happen sometime this week, and she was running out of time. At dinner that night she decided to lean on them a little, see if she could push them together before her time ran out.

Pansy was sitting beside Draco, and she leaned in to spell him. "What kind of cologne are you wearing?"

Giving her an odd look Draco answered slowly, "I'm not."

"Huh. How odd. I could have sworn I smelt something." Turning to Hermione she asks, "Do you smell it?" She sniffs the air again. "It's like new parchment and freshly cut grass."

Hermione straightened remembering their sixth year potion class, when she mentioned smelling those things while bent over Amortentia – the love potion.

Not finished, Pansy leaned in closer to Draco, who quickly pulled away. "Are you wearing spearmint toothpaste?"

"Yes?" Draco asked more than said.

"Hm, interesting." She said looking back to Hermione. When she opened her mouth to talk again Hermione grabbed a pie and lobbed it at her. Unfortunately, in her haste she ended up hitting Malfoy in the face instead.

"Ops." She said, shoulders shaking trying to resist laughing.

Very slowly Draco reached up to wipe the food off his eyes. Very calmly he reached out and smeared the pie all over Hermione's face. Pansy sat very still so as not to spook them, but after briefly glaring at each other, they turned steady glares to her.

She put her hands up hoping for mercy, but seeing their eyes show none she decided she might as well work this to her advantage. "What did I do?"

Picking up the ladle full of mashed potato's Draco dumped the contents on her head and said, "you keep smelling me, for starters."

"And." Hermione grabbed a spoon full of rice, to add to Pansy's new collection. "You keep saying… weird little comments about us."

"Oh well." Draco laughed, and refilled the ladle before dumping the contents onto Hermione's head.

"What the hell was that for?!"

"You encourage her!"

"I do not!" Hermione says standing up, and resting her hands on the table.

"Sure you do." Draco says mimicking Hermione's position.

Getting angry, Hermione picks up a bowl of rice and dumps it on his head. "Well if I encourage Pansy, then you encourage Blaise."

"What did I do?" He asks feigning innocence.

"Shut up!" They shout in unison.

By then everyone in the great hall was watching the spectacle unfold. When Hermione and Draco both armed themselves with bread everyone held their breath. Not even the teacher thought to stand up and say something, they were just as shocked by the events unfolding.

Pansy slowly ducked under the table, followed by Daphne, Ron, Neville, Blaise and Harry. Luna stayed above the table, happy to watch to coming fight.

Meanwhile, Hermione and Draco continued to measure each other up. At the drop of a hat they both threw their food at the other, and some non-descript Hufflepuff shouted "FOOD FIGHT!"

All the students jumped up and started throwing food at whoever was in their way. It only took seconds for the hall to be covered in food, but because of the charms n the pots, the food continued to pour in and fuel the fight.

Hermione and Draco seemed immune to anyone other than each other. They were completely invested in their personal vendettas.

"This is for beating me in every. Single. Class." Draco enunciated each word by throwing a muffin at her.

"This is for bullying me at every. Single. Turn." She responded in kind, with an arm full of fruits.

"Well" he jumped on the table. "At least I only used words." He said grabbing a bowl of gravy and pouring it down her shirt.

Hermione grabbed a fresh bowl or strawberry sauce and she climbed on the table. "Words that hurt." She said pouring it down his shirt too. "And I wasn't scoffing at your heritage or appearance. But rather you personality." She continued shoving handfuls of blueberries in his face and mushing them around.

Following her lead with a handful of raspberries Malfoy reasoned, "Not as much as hex's and right hooks."

Backing up Hermione laughed and said, "Yeah that was a good one."

"Besides." Malfoy continued with a handful of mashed potato's. "You've been calling me ferret for years."

Getting angry again Hermione grabbed handful of potatoes too. "Oh, boo-hoo " she said before grabbing a basket full of buns. "Try being the freak at home, and the reject at school. Try being constantly reminded you're a bucktooth, with frizzy hair, and an ugly face. Why don't you go. Your. Whole. Life being unwanted!"

"I did!" Draco shouted. "The only difference is I. Still. Am!" He emphasized with handfuls of cake.

"Well sure. Once a coward, always a Sniveling. Little. Coward." Hermione said throwing handfuls of pee's at him.

"Coward?" he said grabbing a cake, "I went against a lifetime of beliefs, I pulled a turncoat on people who would skin you alive for less. I turned my back on my family for a society I didn't even know. You call me a coward for my actions as a child." Draco said dropping the plate now that the cake was all gone.

"You just watched!" Hermione screamed. Draco's shoulder slumped; he didn't have a response. She grabbed anything she could throw at him, "You. Just. Watched. I screamed and I begged. And you just watched." With nothing left to throw, she started hitting him in the chest repeating herself. "You. Just. Watched."

Her punches didn't have any weight. Draco barley felt them, and when she was hardly touching him anymore he grabbed her arms.

The magic that had been keeping them together suddenly snapped.

Feeling defeated she started sobbing into his chest, and he lightly caressed her hair. She remembered the sensation from when she was injured and took great comfort in it.

When she'd been tortured, she'd seen the pain in his eyes. But a small part of her had always been mad at him for not doing anything.

She knew it was ridiculous. What could he have done? Spoken up and gotten killed too. But a part of her always knew she'd have to live with that feeling. She'd sworn to herself that she would act like she'd moved on, and hope that one day she actually could.

And today when she started hitting him she realized she was hitting his family, not him. In her minds eye she saw Lucius and Bellatrix. She looked into their hate filled eyes and lashed out. But then she remembered she was hitting Draco and couldn't fault him anymore. She realized he couldn't know what she was thinking and stood up to tell him.

He let her go. He had believed that they were getting along. That they'd come to a truce. He saw the look in her eyes and he knew she was going to tell him to leave her alone. He stepped away shaking his head, "It's okay. I get it."

He'd turned away to fast to see her shaking her head no. She hiccupped and stumbled after him, but she was still shaky and couldn't catch up.

He maneuvered through the crowd, and she just sat on a bench putting her head on her hands.

How was she going to fix this?

~~~Common rooms~~~

Hermione POV

I can not believe I'm about to do this. This is ridiculous!

Hermione was pacing the hall in front of Draco's room.

After the food fight she had run to the Commons to explain to him that she didn't blame him, but he was already gone. She'd waited on the couch, shaking like a Chihuahua and jumping every time someone opened the door.

When Pansy finally came back, she'd told her everything that happened, and what Draco thought.

Pansy had told her that even if she explained how she really felt, Draco probably wouldn't believe her. He'd grown up with people always telling him what they thought he wanted to hear, so he was used to it.

That's when I got this brilliant idea.

I had run out of the room without even pausing to tell Pansy my idea. When I got back she was standing in the place where I'd left her, arms crossed over her chest and glaring for good measure.

She raised her eyebrow in silent question, but I didn't answer. I just asked if he'd come back yet.

That was three hours ago, and he still hadn't returned. Everyone had already gone to bed, and I was still standing here, covered head to toe in food.

I was considering doing a cleaning spell when Draco rounded a corner. Upon seeing me he tried turned around to leave.

"Wait!" I yelled.

"Look, Granger. It's okay." He said crossing his arms. When I raised my eyebrow he continued, "Really, I'm fine."

"How you are, is your business, but I have something to say and you need to hear it." Grabbing a bottle from my coat pocket, I held it up for him to see. "This is veritaserum. I stole it out of Snape's stash, so that alone should tell you I mean business."

I watched as his eyes widened comically, and continued before he could interrupt me. "I only took enough for an hour, so I'm going to say my piece and then lock myself in my room." Draco didn't say anything, and I didn't wait for him to. I uncorked the bottle and drank the damn liquid whole.

I paused as the potion spread throughout my body. When I felt sufficiently warm I looked Draco in the eyes. "I don't blame you for that night. I'm not mad at you for not doing anything. I was, I'll admit that. But today I realized that I don't blame you. I'm glade you didn't. We both know what would have happened, they would have killed you for that kind of betrayal. And I've come to find the prospect of you being dead, unpleasant." Not willing to continue talking, I stalked past Draco towards my room.

Before I could pass though he grabbed my arm, and turned me to face him.

"What are you doing?" I asked nervously. I knew this was a stupid idea! Did I learn nothing from the games?!

"It's like you said; once a coward, always a coward." He smirked. "how would you describe our relationship?"

"We're not friends." I saw the way his face fell, and I grabbed his chin to make sure he kept eye contact. "Not in the sense that we're less than friends." I saw the briefest flash of hope, before he covered it up again. "But when I think of you, 'friends' isn't the word I'd use. You're different. I'm too attracted to you to think of you as a friend."

Grinning wildly, Malfoy grabbed me on either side of my face and kissed me. My hands tangled in his hair as shots of electricity made my stomach do flips. The kiss was brief, yet feverish and sweet. When we broke apart we were both smiling, and our hands lingered on each other. I trailed my hand down his chest, and to my delight I saw goose bumps rise on his arms. "Good night."

I swayed my hips as I walked away. When I got to the door I turned my head to see him still watching me with a smile. It was one of those genuine smiles that make him so beautiful it leaves me breathless.

I spent the rest of the night feeling breathless, and it was worth every second.


Hope you've enjoyed. R&R.