"YOU DID THIS TO ME!" Hermione shouted hysterically.
"Consider it a favor, Granger." Draco stared at her and smirked. "A dragon tattoo is sexy, and sexy is something you are seriously lacking."
Hermione glared at him. "Well then, I guess I should find some way to give you a brain to return the favor."
"Oh, how clever." Draco drawled. "Seriously, Granger. What makes you think I'm an idiot?"
Hermione gave him a venomously sweet grin. Draco shivered, mostly in fear.
"Because, Malfoy, you were stupid enough to do something like this and expect to live."
Draco looked at her, suddenly serious. "Trust me Granger, if I knew exactly what the spell was, I wouldn't have done it."
Hermione turned sheet white and gave him a look of horror. "You preformed a spell without knowing what it was?" She looked away, unable to face him. "I was joking before, but now I really do believe you must be an idiot." Hermione forced herself to look him in the face. He was even paler than usual. Which was saying a lot.
"What did you do to me?" She whispered.
Draco stared at the girl standing in front of him. Her hair was messy and out of place, and her fair skin seemed to glow in the dimly lit room. Her brown eyes seemed to burn holes into him. Draco sighed and closed his eyes.
"I was just in the middle of informing Draco on that matter, in fact."
Hermione turned quickly to find the source of the voice, and ended up tripping on herself. She fell backward and landed on Draco, who in turn snickered.
"Can't keep your hands off me, Granger?" Draco sneered at her.
"Go jump off the astronomy tower, Malfoy."
Draco feigned pain and clutched at his heart dramatically. "You're a heart-breaker, Granger."
"Get over yourself, ferret."
"You're the one who's on top of me, Granger."
Hermione glared at him and tried to get up, but Draco knocked her back down again with a kick to the back of her knee. He laughed violently as she turned pink in embarrassment and tried to get up again. Draco was about to knock her over again when he was interrupted by the sound of Scorpious clearing his throat.
"If you two can manage to keep your hands off of each for a moment," Scorpious said smoothly, "I would gladly explain the spell Draco was so eager to cast without thought of its consequences."
Hermione turned a violent shade of red. She quickly found her feet and moved to a distant corner of the room, where she focused all of her attention on the man in the portrait, ignoring Draco completely.
"Now, if you're through interrupting me…"
…
Hermione pulled her sheets across her. She snuggled into the warmth in an attempt to fight off the cold. She feel uneasy, like there was something that she should remember, that she had to study or homework she had to fix. It was an annoying, nagging, tormenting feeling that wouldn't leave her subconscious alone. It wouldn't let her rest in peace, but wasn't enough to make her get up and figure it out. She tried her best to just ignore it.
The clock chimed six, and Hermione slowly opened her eyes, but not without a groan in protest. The world around her was fuzzy and unclear, but she suddenly realized she wasn't where she was supposed to be. She wasn't in her bed, she wasn't in Gryffindor.
She blinked, the world coming into focus.
She wasn't even in the Slytherin dorms.
She blinked again.
These weren't even sheets.
She held the material closer to her face and studied them warily, their green trim glowing in the dim light.
They were robes.
And not the ones she had borrowed from Pansy.
As she slowly emerged from her semi-conscious and mostly asleep state, she took stock of her surroundings. To her surprise, she realized that she was, in fact, not lying in a bed, like she normally would be, but in a chair leaning against something. And that something was what had been keeping her warm. That something was the source of the robes.
She was soon awake enough to piece all this together with the help of a head of platinum blonde hair she soon noticed not to far away from her.
"Malfoy!" She whispered to herself, as she remembered the previous night in a flash.
…
Hermione stood motionless her eyes focused on nothing in general. Her mind raced, she didn't know how to comprehend this. She could only grasp one thing, and that was anger. And she had one person to unleash it upon.
"ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE, MALFOY?"
Draco cringed. He had seen this coming; he wasn't a stranger to Hermione's wrath by any means. This was just the first time he felt like he deserved it.
"Seriously, Granger. I didn't know that was what the spell was!" He said lamely, attempting to defend himself from her verbal attacks.
"A dark mark, Malfoy. A DARK MARK?!?"
Draco sighed. "Don't say it like that, Granger. It's not the same."
"It's the SAME SPELL, Malfoy."
He couldn't believe it. He had never felt like this before-regret, remorse? What ever it was, he wasn't going to show it.
"It's not dark, Granger." He drawled. "And I'm the one who should be disgusted. A mudblood bearing my mark? Unthinkable." He sneered at her, but it was only half-heartedly.
Hermione looked like she was about to explode at him again, but instead restrained herself and turned to address the portrait of Scorpious.
"What does this mean, exactly?" She said as calmly as possible.
Scorpious, who had remained silent during their argument spoke. "It depends. Generally, it is a spell used to show one's loyalty and belonging to a family or group, and can be used to contact the people who bear the mark. One must only touch the mark while thinking of the other person to call them."
Hermione paused and thought this over.
"Does that mean Malfoy has one too?"
"The mark?" Scorpious replied. "Of course."
Hermione smirked. Draco, Draco, Draco. You're going to pay for this, she thought while rubbing the back of her neck. She watched amusedly as Draco started to cringe.
"What the hell, Granger!" He shot back at her, massaging his neck.
"Oww!" She screeched.
"You started it!"
"You're the one who gave me this thing in the first place!" She retorted.
On the other side of the room, once again completely ignored, Scorpious rolled his eyes. "Teenagers." He groaned, and proceeded to vacate his portrait.
"Yes, well you're a stuck-up know-it-all!"
"Well at least I'm smart enough to know what a spell does before I use it!"
"Oh, not that again, Granger!"
"Yes, that!"
"Forget it already!"
"I can't! You won't freaking let me!"
"You started it!"
Hermione groaned. "I'm leaving. Don't you dare touch that thing, that mark again!"
"I'll do what I damn well please, Granger."
Hermione stood frozen in front of the empty portrait frame.
"He's gone." She stated blankly.
Draco looked over. "That bastard..." he moaned.