Chapter 6
She didn't answer him. Instead, she just stared at him with what he could only assume to be shock. Was he being entirely stupid? Was their shared connection all in his head? Even if it was, he couldn't take back what he had just offered and so, hoping to end the silence, he asked again, "so, what do you say?"
The unease in his stomach grew with every second she remained silent. Impatient, he uttered, "I'm not waiting forever for a response. Either a yes or no will suffice."
Draco prepared for her to say no and walk away.
"Yes, I'll go with you."
It was now his turn to be shocked. Not wanting to give her a moment to go back on her word, he grabbed her hand and led her toward the Slytherin entrance. At the seemingly blank stretch of wall, he muttered, "Ophidian," to reveal the passage to the common room.
"What the fuck Draco! She can't be here," Pansy yelled from across the room.
He wasn't surprised by her reaction. For one thing, Pansy Parkinson was raised to hate anyone muggle-borne, especially the ones who were smarter, prettier and more well-rounded than her. Therefore, Hermione was a clear target for her hatred.
Additionally, it was not permitted to bring non-Slytherin students into their common room. For this reason, Draco was surprised when Blaise spoke up.
"Oh, shove it Pansy, let Draco have his fun."
Was Blaise simply supporting him because he hoped it meant Draco would be social again? Or possibly, although unlikely, Blaise felt sorry for his earlier actions.
"He can have his fun elsewhere," Pansy shrieked, "this common room is not open to outsiders. No one, but the members of Slytherin, have been in this room for over seven centuries."
Draco doubted that old rumor was true. Within all the years, there had to be at least one student who snuck a student from another house into their room. Merlin knows Draco debated it at least once or twice, especially when the Beauxbatons girls were visiting Hogwarts.
Then, in the corner of his eye, Draco noticed Hermione was giggling. It struck him as rather odd that she felt the urge to laugh when being yelled at for breaking "sacred" Slytherin rules. He made a mental note to ask her about it later.
Thankfully, Theodore Nott also decided to aid Draco's rebellious act of bringing an outsider into their common room. In attempts to distract Pansy, he flirted, "calm down, you're not nearly as sexy when you're angry."
The flirtatious route was a nice touch, Draco thought. Pansy had been pining for Nott for the last few months, and so, any attention from him was bound to work. Letting Hermione in on this information, Draco commented, "she's had a thing for Nott for a while now. I'm not surprised his attention got her to give in."
"I always thought Pansy was interested in you…"
Draco thought he could detect a sense of envy in her voice, which made him feel slightly satisfied.
"Were you jealous Granger?"
Draco found it cute the way her cheeks began to redden, and she fidgeted with her dress when she was embarrassed.
"Don't worry," he added to comfort her, "that was ages ago. Our parents always loved the idea of us together, so we dated briefly in fourth year. But truthfully, Pansy is a little too needy for my taste. Now how about we get ourselves another drink."
Within seconds of being at the refreshment table, Zabini made his way to the couple with a serious look on his face.
"So, care to explain."
Still bitter that he had tried to wreck her evening over a bet, Draco replied, "not all of us are trying to ruin her night," in a harsh tone.
Blaise's attention shifted to Hermione.
"It was nothing personal Granger. Just couldn't stand the thought of losing a bet to Pansy. I'll give it to you Gryffindor, nobody has made Draco this social in months. He'd normally be moping in his room by now."
Blaise noticed the annoyed look across Draco's face. Getting the hint, he winked at Hermione while saying, "don't have too much fun tonight Gryffindor," before walking away.
Everyone else was already changed out of their formal attire for the ball and so, Draco asked Hermione, "do you want something more comfortable to wear?"
"I don't have my wand on me. This dress really is impractical. But I could go to my dormitory quickly and change."
Draco was glad she had chosen the impracticable choice because the dress was absolutely stunning. Also, this would mean he had an excuse to get her into Slytherin clothes.
"Don't bother, I have a jumper you can borrow, and I'll get one of the girls to lend you some pants."
He scanned the room to find someone who he could ask and saw Daphne Greengrass sitting on the leather couches talking with Adelaide Murton. Daphne and Draco were old family friends, and always tended to get along. She hesitated at first when he asked for her to lend clothes to Hermione, but eventually agreed. She took her wand out of her sweater and said "accio" to summon a pair of black pants.
Draco made his way back across the room to Hermione, who had been standing self-consciously against a wall.
"Come on, we can change upstairs."
They walked up the curving black staircase into the dormitories. He left Hermione once more, this time to change out of his suit. When he returned, he stood in the doorway momentarily, watching her explore his room. Then, he pulled a forest green jumper out of his trunk and handed it to her.
"Here, it might be a little big but I'm sure you'll look great in green."
"Do you mind helping me with the corset of my dress."
Draco made his way behind Hermione and gently pushed her hair out of the way. She smelled of spearmint. His hands brushed down her back to the base of the corset. As he was loosening the ribbon, he noticed how delicate her neck looked with her hair pushed to the side.
Once the corset was loosened, he turned away, allowing her to change into her borrowed clothes.
After a moment, he heard her say, "okay, you can look now."
When Draco turned to see her, he was once again shocked by how beautiful she was. Draco always grew up being taught to hate her… but how could he?
"I told you green would be a great colour on you."
Pushing his luck, Draco decided to step closer to her. He reached his hand toward her to brush the hair out of her face.
"God Granger, it would be a lot easier to ignore you, if you weren't so god damn beautiful."
Draco's heart was racing. He was worried she would find this too forward. Hermione wasn't like the other girls Draco had liked before. He found himself constantly questioning if his actions were completely moronic. The last thing he wanted to do was rush into anything too fast and scare her away. And so, he leaned towards her to whisper, "I'd love to keep you up here forever, but I assume the rest of the party is going to start spreading rumours about what we're doing pretty soon. Assuming that you'd hate me if I ruined your reputation, we should probably get back to the common room."
Draco led her, with his hand hovering near the small of her back. As they re-entered the common room, he noticed the other students were setting up a game of truth or dare. On the center table, lay a silver chalice surrounded by smaller potion vials.
"Perfect timing," Theodore Nott exclaimed. "We were just about to come find you so you could join the game."
"What is this?" Hermione questioned.
The Slytherin way of playing truth or dare was clearly not a Gryffindor tradition.
"Truth or dare, or at least the Slytherin version of the game," Blaise explained, "you see, we play the game a little more extreme than other houses probably do. The rules are simple. In the center of the table is a cup with diluted veritaserum. A single sip will cause the drinker to be brutally honest for approximately one minute. If you choose truth, you must take a sip and answer your question. If you choose the dare option, you must complete whatever task is given to you. However, if you refuse to answer the question, or fail to complete your task, you must take a sip from one of the unlabeled vials."
"and what exactly are the unlabeled vials?"
"They vary. Some are prank potions purchased from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, other are our own concoctions, and a few are potions taken from Slughorn. They all have a surprise negative side effect. You might break out in pimples even Madame Pomfrey can't get rid of, or your teeth will grow without stop, or onetime, Goyle turned green for a week."
Many people in the room began to laugh, including Draco.
"Alright Granger," Draco smirked, "as our guest, you can go first. So, what will it be? Truth or dare?"
As he had expected, Hermione chose truth, and so Draco got his chance to ask, "earlier tonight, you laughed at Pansy saying only Slytherins were allowed in the common room. I'm curious, what was so funny?"
He watched her confidently take a sip from the chalice before revealing, "well, Pansy said no one outside of Slytherin had been in your common room for over seven centuries, which I know isn't true, so I thought it was funny. Harry and Ron came in here in second year. Draco actually let them in."
Draco's face went white and all eyes shifted to him. He knew this wasn't true, and yet, she had drunk from the cup, so how could she be lying?
"In Draco's defence," she continued, "he didn't know it was them. I brewed Polyjuice potion in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and they drank it in order to look just like Crabbe and Goyle. We were trying to figure out who the heir of Slytherin was."
Draco briefly recalled an odd conversation with Crabbe and Goyle a few years ago, where they questioned him about the chamber, and then mysteriously ran out of the common room in a hurry.
"Damn Granger, how the hell did you manage to brew Polyjuice potion at the age of twelve?" Nott asked in awe.
"It was actually not as difficult as you would imagine. I used flattery on Lockhart after class one day so that he would sign a library slip allowing me to get the recipe from the restricted section. Then I broke into Snape's cupboard to obtain the rarer ingredients, knowing he would never suspect me. It took about a month to brew, but hiding it was easy because no one ever goes into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom."
Draco, along with many others in the room, was immensely impressed.
"I never knew the golden-girl broke so many school rules," Blaise said in admiration.
Draco was pleased to see that Hermione was fitting in well with the Slytherins.
"Alright then, your turn Blaise, truth or dare," Hermione asked.
"I'm going to go with truth. I'm hoping I might come out looking like a badass like you Granger."
"What is the most embarrassing thing a teacher has ever caught you doing?"
Blaise took a sip from the chalice and began his story, "funny you should ask, because it was actually during a game of truth or dare. Your boy Draco dared me to make it to the astronomy tower and back without any clothes on. Got halfway there before McGonagall stopped me."
The whole room burst out in laugher at the thought of McGonagall seeing a student naked. Draco looked to Hermione and noticed the adorable way her eye squinted whenever she laughed.
"Her reaction was priceless. Earned me a month of Friday night detentions and she took 50 points from Slytherin, but I think deep down she enjoyed the sight," he finished in a cheeky voice then asked, "Nott, truth or dare?"
Without hesitation, Nott said, "dare."
Nott was notorious for always choosing dare. No one knew if it was because he liked the rush of adrenaline the dares often provided, or if he had secretes he wasn't willing to share.
"I dare you to steal all of the crystal balls out of Trelawney's classroom. I would worry for you that she would see this coming, but something tells me she was too busy predicting student deaths."
Nott stood up and walked out of the room. Less than ten minutes later, he returned with a bag floating beside him full of crystal balls.
"Too easy."
Everyone gave a round of applause for his success.
"Pansy, sweetheart, truth or dare?"
Pansy saw right through the 'sweetheart' act, knowing Nott had something difficult in store for her.
"Dare," she said, staring straight into his eyes, not willing to back down.
"I dare you to go skinny dipping in the Black Lake. And to make sure you don't cheat we're coming to watch."
Draco knew Pansy too well to think she would let this slide easily. So when she faked being pulled under the water by some mysterious monster in order to get Nott into the lake with her, he wasn't surprised. She always had been a devious girl.
The sun began to rise across the lake, and for the first morning in a long time, Draco felt content. He was glad to be laughing with his friends again. For some reason, having Hermione there beside him made everything more relaxing.
But as always, something had to ruin his bliss. Hermione began to panic about the time. It was likely that she was worried what her fellow Gryffindors would think of her after they found out she had partied with the Slytherins.
"I have to go."
Pansy spoke up, "you can't leave until we finish the game. Draco still has to choose."
"Fine, but make it quick please," Hermione pleaded.
Not wanting to stress Hermione any more than she already was, Draco decided to complete his turn outside by the lake.
"We don't have the chalice out here, so I guess dare is my only option."
"Perfect," Pansy leered. "I dare you to kiss the Gryffindor."
Instantly Draco knew she chose this dare because kissing him in front of everyone was social suicide. The news would quickly make its way around the entire school, and it was likely her Gryffindor friends would not approve. Draco, however, couldn't say no. If he turned the dare down, and opted for the potion, Hermione would take it personal, thinking he didn't like her.
When he turned towards her, she looked petrified. He gave her a gentle smile, hoping to provide ease. Then, he put his hand on her lower back and pulled her close. He leaned in and their lips met. Her lips were incredibly soft. His hands moved to the base of her head, wrapping into her hair. Indulging in the kiss, he pressed his lips against hers more passionately.
He didn't want to pull away but knew he must.
"You better get going," he said with a wink.
Watching as she ran towards the castle, Draco touched his lips. He had kissed many girls before, but it never felt quite like that. It was going to break him if he never got the chance to do it again.