A/N- Sorry for the long wait, I have had and currently have a lot of homework, especially English- many, many essays! I'm in AP.
Disclaimer- Wish I did, but I don't.
Summary- Two days/scenes crammed into one. The first is short and not really detailed but the second is. Hermione again. Lots of dialogue!
Jackknifed
It happened again the next evening, when Hermione had been mulling about in the Library, the birthday card in her bag, putting her used books back on the shelf.
She looked up and around to see Malfoy sitting at one of the long oak tables. She puzzled over him for a moment. He glanced up at her through silvery lashes, but his face remained utterly blank.
Hermione still didn't understand why he was so keen on meeting up with her for a second time. It wasn't like their attitudes towards each other changed at all during classes. He would still sneer in her general direction; she would still attempt to ignore it.
But there he was again, lounging next to a sizable stack of Witch Weekly magazines, staring off into space.
Hermione pulled away from the book shelves.
"Here again?"
Malfoy blinked up at her, a small sneer on his lips.
"I don't have to be."
Hermione stared at him. It wasn't as if she was asking him to go up to the Owlry with her. But she just sighed, not wishing to start another row.
"I didn't mean that, I was just surprised, that's all."
But it was a lie. She knew it all along, really, deep down, that he would be there. Hermione didn't know if she was pleased at this little bit of knowledge or appalled, but there it was.
In fact, Hermione had to practically pry Ron and Harry off of her in order to get down to the Library alone. It was all she could do, really.
"Why not use Headwig this time, Hermione?" Harry had asked her hopefully, that gleam of innocent eagerness flecking his voice and bright green eyes.
"Oh I couldn't" Hermione had hissed. "She just got in from such a long flight, really, it's all right- really. I don't mind going alone."
She didn't dare to even look at Ron…
"What are you gawking at?" Draco drawled.
Hermione's eyes grew wide and focused more acutely on Malfoy. She was snapped out of her memory in an instant.
"What? Oh. Sorry."
Malfoy looked at her funny, pushing back his chair and standing up. He raised an eyebrow as if to say; 'after you'. Hermione gave a swift nod of her head and walked past him out of the Library; he following a few moments after.
That night had passed similar to the last, Hermione awkwardly trying to coax the owls into submission with Draco having to do it for her. In the end, he left again, right after the barn owl was out of sight.
Hermione watched him go, biting her lip, wondering.
Nearly eleven o'clock that evening and she was still awake.
Sitting in front of the fire, Crookshanks in her lap, the boys asleep in the armchairs, Hermione realized that she had nothing else to send the next night.
No reason to go to the Owlry at all.
In a kind of frantic, half-hearted gesture, Hermione tried to create some kind of excuse. Perhaps she could have forgotten something else she needed to owl? But she gave up without putting quill to parchment.
Laying alone in bed that night, curled up around her crimson covers, Hermione puzzling over her and Malfoy's strange acquaintance. After years of his maltreatment of her, Harry, Ron, and basically everyone at Hogwarts, she couldn't really call their cockeyed Owlry- ritual of only twice 'friendship'.
Not that. Not now. Not so soon. Not yet, anyway…
.o.o.o.o.
"Shove off, Malfoy." Ron sneered across the Potion's table, reacting to the Slytherin's private, yet very audible, conversation. The blond cocked a smirk.
"Well, well, Weasel, it is true what they say about your father, isn't it?"
"Just leave us alone and go back to your brain-dead cronies, alright?"
Hermione squirmed in her seat, trying to focus on the page in front of her. It was terribly disconcerting to have Ron leaning over her work in order to 'bother' Malfoy.
"Watch your mouth Weasel." Draco hissed in his thin-as-ice voice, eyes narrowed into small slits.
Ron backed down quickly, the wind out of him in a split second. Hermione watched, out of the corner of her eye, as he threw his quill onto the parchment and looked very angrily at it.
Hermione wanted to turn, put a hand on his arm, tell him to ignore the prat. But she couldn't bring herself to do it. She didn't know why.
Instead she stole a glance at Malfoy.
He was still sneering, but as her gaze fell on him, it broke. Piece by piece the malicious glint in his eye went from a terrible flame to a mere smolder within crystal blue.
His eyes bore into hers. Not in a way that they use to, the way they had made Hermione felt like crawling under her desk or like she wanted to curse him. But it was an intense look, and it made Hermione all the more happy that class was dismissed a few minutes after.
.o.o.o.o.
Ron, Harry, and Hermione huddled close to the double doors in the Entrance Hall. Both boys hooking their broomsticks over their shoulders, looking quizzically over at Hermione.
"You should come, Hermione." Harry goaded gently. "It'll be good for you to get away from those books for a while, right Ron?" The other simply nodded.
Hermione twisted the blue ribbon on her bag absently, mulling the idea over. Ron watched her hand with a blank expression. Hermione shook her head.
"Oh, I can't. Have that essay, all right? History of Magic." Her voice sounded too eager. She coughed and pitched it low. "Besides, you two should already be out there, practicing; you don't want to lose tomorrow."
Silence.
Ron nodded eventually, slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, come on Harry." He turned and strode out into the warm autumn evening, not looking back. Hermione glanced quizzically at Harry.
"What's wrong with him?"
Harry shrugged. "I'll see you later, Hermione."
He turned and followed Ron, looking back with a smile and waving. Hermione gave a soft smile and returned the gesture.
Hermione leaned against the stone column inside the Hall, lingering a few seconds after both boys had left. She smoothed out her robes and tapped the toe of her shoe onto the stone
Running an unsteady hand through her hair, she tried to grasp at the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. The unraveling feeling. The... the...
Startled, Hermione felt a tug on her shoulder. Wheeling around, she caught Malfoy, his finger hooked in the blue ribbon on her book bog, tugging gently. His clear eyes lingered over her, blond strands falling into his face.
"Liar." He said scathingly, however, there was a stain of admiration in his voice.
"What?" Hermione asked blankly, looking around to see if anyone was watching them.
"You finished that essay yesterday, Granger. You lied."
Hermione flushed. He had seen the parchment in the Library the day before.
"Well, I-" She started, unsure of what she was going to say. Malfoy smiled.
"Owlry?"
"Oh… right. Er- Malfoy. I don't have anything to send. I- sorry."
Malfoy arched an eyebrow. "Yeah? What if I did?"
"You have a Owl, don't you?" Hermione's eyes squinted in a small grin, mostly to herself, as they started to walk in the opposite direction from the Great Hall; Draco with her.
He didn't answer her question. Hermione really hadn't expected him to anyway.
Almost to the spiral steps to the tower and someone called out Draco's name. He turned around and pushed Hermione, gently, over to her right, shielding her with a large stone statue.
"What is it?" He asked, almost defiantly. Hermione could hear the near savage tone in his voice, so close to where she was standing.
"Practice, eh?"
"Potter and the Weasel's teams' got it."
"Not for long." Said another voice, eager and greasy like.
Malfoy snorted.
"What, Draco, aren't you coming to practice? Big match ta'morrow, eh? Want'a put those Gryffindor's in their place."
"Telling them to shove off the pitch isn't going to 'put them in their place'." Draco laughed at the group of- well, Hermione could hear at least three voices, but it was most likely the whole team towering over him.
Someone sneered, audibly. "Fine then, Malfoy. Just don't blame us or throw a fit if we lose. Not our fault someone's been ditching practice the last few days."
"One day."
"Two, now. Come on, boys."
Malfoy watched them go, a hand on his hip, brooding.
After a few moments, Hermione reached out and touched his shoulder. Draco snapped his head to her.
"You okay, Draco?" Hermione watched him.
"Fine." He said flatly, starting up the stairs.
"But shouldn't you go to practice?" Hermione questioned, following.
"You too, Granger?" There was a hint of controlled laughter in his voice. Hermione just shook her head and followed.
She let her bag drop on the stone landing once they reached the outside the tower. Sinking down to the ground, she felt the warm breeze, wet and saturated with dusk, brush past her. Draco sat opposite her, folding his legs under him, leaning his head back against the stone.
They sat in silence for a few moments.
"You don't get to relax much, do you?"
Malfoy looked at Hermione out of one eye.
"Why do you say that?" He asked suspiciously.
Hermione shrugged. "It's just, between Quidditch, school, and plotting evil- it doesn't look like you just get to…" She gestured at him. "Do that often.
Malfoy grinned and shrugged simply, giving into the fact that she was correct in her assumption.
"Why do you think I should go to practice, Granger?"
Hermione blinked at him, brow furrowed.
"Think your boyfriends are going to beat me bloody? Think I need to strengthen up a bit before they have their go at me?"
"Just because you're sore from getting told off by your teammates does not mean that it should be taken out on me. We're not up here to fight, we're here to talk. Seeing as you don't get that often with your 'friends'. And, for your information, neither Harry nor Ron is my 'boyfriend'."
Malfoy simply shrugged, leaning his head back against the stone.
"Do you know what I love about Quidditch?" Hermione started.
Malfoy snorted. "Obviously not the flying bit, you can't hardly stay on a broom."
She ignored him.
"The fact that, when your watching, in the stands, you know? Anything could happen, at any moment. One second you could be peacefully watching the match, then, suddenly, out of no where, a Chaser could whiz by your head. It's so exciting and unpredictable."
Draco stared at her. "That's the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard." Hermione blushed, but smiled. "And since when did you like the 'unpredictable'?"
Hermione shrugged.
"Malfoy, we've known each other for how many years? And how many of them have been used to annoy me? It's not like you know much about me."
"You're not unpredictable."
"Oh yeah?" Hermione leaned forward, a smirk on her lips, a near mirror or Malfoy's signature sneer.
Malfoy took one look at her and choked back a smirk. Letting his head fall back, he started laughing. Hermione's grin grew. It was so unguarded, that laugh, as if it grew from deep within his chest and expelled into the night just for her little joke. She had never heard him laugh like that.
"Fine! Fine, Granger! You can be unpredictable if you want!" He shook his head, amazed at her.
Their conversation lapsed into generalized chit chat after that. They spoke of nearly anything they could think of, that bit of laughter being the catalyst they needed in order to become mildly comfortable with each other.
Hermione couldn't remember the last time she had spoken at such a length with someone without there being an interjection of 'can you do my homework?' or 'hey Hermione, watch what I can do to Crookshanks'.
She could tell Malfoy felt the same, having found someone who could hold a rather intelligent conversation.
It had grown dark, Malfoy conjuring a lantern to illuminate their stone landing. Hermione tied her cloak around her, the first chill of night upon her.
"I should go." Draco said finally, after a long paused moment.
"Hmm?" Hermione opened her eyes to look at him.
Malfoy ran a hand through his hair and smiled. "Big match tomorrow."
"Right."
"You going?"
"Of course. I wouldn't miss seeing Slytherin get the stuffing beat out of them by Gryffindor."
"Really think you'll win?" He stood, brushing off his robes and witching away the lights. His eyes focused hard on her.
"Without a doubt."
Malfoy smirked and started down the staircase.
"Good luck."
Malfoy turned, half way down the third step.
"What?"
Hermione walked up to the edge of the stone steps.
"I won't see you, obviously, so… good luck."
Draco shook his head.
"Thanks, Granger."
And he disappeared into the dark below.
A/N- Wow, sorry it's been so long since I updated. I have a lot of work, but I really love this story, so I'm still writing it! Next chapter Malfoy for sure! More chapters planned!
Review! Review! Review!