I don't own any of the characters (: only the plot! Enjoy!
The next couple of months were filled with intense disagreements. Our conversation on Parent-Teacher night had changed our dynamic. We would argue so much that people either thought we hated each other, or we were in love with each other. Our "discussions," to put it lightly, were filled with sarcastic quips and would often end with one of us, usually me, shouting at the other for being so stupid. And just when I would think that this is the day that I would finally kill the boy, he would say something so idiotic or amusing and then shoot me that boyish grin instead of his smirk and all I was able to do was laugh or smile in return.
Throughout these months, I had learned that Draco was such an attention whore. He would patiently sit by me and watch as I worked up to a point before-
"Hermioninnyyyy." Speak of the devil.
"What?" I bit out. Normally, I would be more amused. But my patience was at an all-time low today after I had gone through another sleepless night of listening to my parents and sister fight. Plus, he kept taking my pencils in an attempt to prevent me from working.
"I'm bored."
"There's an assignment on the board."
"You want me to solve my boredom by working?"
I sighed before putting my pencil down and turning to him. "That seems like the only thing you've never tried."
We were currently sitting in study hall for Arithmetic after school. Draco, Luna and I had become tutors in this subject so we would spend our Tuesday afternoons at school for one hour helping the teacher create assignments and teach other students. Since Draco was in Advanced Arithmetic, he was the head tutor and was usually allowed to do whatever he wanted. He made it a point to always sit next to or in front of me. I assumed it was purely to annoy the hell out of me, which had lately become his favorite past time. Luna, sitting next to me, stifled a giggle at my response and Draco glared at me before a smirk slowly made its way across his lips.
"I just want to spend quality time with my best friend," he drawled before moving to hug me and god only knows what else. I immediately shot up out of my chair and glared back at him. I did not like being touched and especially not by him when he was trying to hug me. It often led to things like him trying to ruffle my hair, which would then make me want to punch him in the face.
"Touch me and I will break your arm."
"I'd like to see you try."
"Don't tempt me."
"Hermione, have you finished your work yet?" I turned around as Ms. Vector, our Arithmetic teacher, walked towards me. She was much taller than me and was probably the palest person I had ever seen. She had extremely long, light blonde hair that was pretty much the exact same color of her skin tone, giving her an overall yellow, sickly appearance.
"Well, no," I said sheepishly, "but Draco -"
"Then get back to work and let Draco do his work," she said, not quite snapping at me but with a level of irritation that was completely unwarranted. I turned and glared at Draco, who grinned happily at me. He was no doubt pleased that he had escaped trouble for the millionth time. I rolled my eyes before going back to my worksheet.
It wasn't long until I felt someone kick my foot. I yelped and my head shot up from my worksheet to glare at the smug boy in front of me. This had also become an increasingly common game with him. To a bystander it probably looked like we were two teenagers playing footsie whenever this happened, but no. This was war. Draco had been playing soccer since he was three years old. As a result, when he kicked, it fucking hurt. The first time he had invaded the space under my desk, he had been gentle, but I had already been annoyed at him for stealing my pencils earlier that day and when it became obvious that he wasn't going to move his feet, I had kicked him in the shin as hard as I could. From that day on, it had become a continuous battle to see who could acquire the most amount of space for their feet. I know it must not seem like an important issue, but to me this was about more than personal space. It was about pride and about wiping that stupid smirk off his face every time I kicked him unexpectedly.
"Stop it," I hissed at him. "You've already gotten me in trouble today."
"You know you love me."
"I very much do not love you and I'm not doing this today."
He grinned before placing his feet directly on top of mine under my desk.
I narrowed my eyes. "Move your feet."
"Nope."
"Draco."
"Yes, dear?"
"Move your damn feet."
"I will not."
"If you don't move your feet, I am not responsible for what happens next."
"Is that a promise?" He winked at me. It was at that point that I absolutely lost it and what followed was World War III, if a war involved feet and desks and ended in a draw after I had accidentally hit the metal bar of his desk instead of his leg.
"Let's call it a tie," Draco said. His eyes followed me as I bent down to check on my foot, which I was having mild difficulty moving. These fights normally ended in a tie because I refused to give up and I knew that no matter how hard I kicked him; he had felt worse on the soccer field.
"I'm fine," I snapped back. He just rolled his eyes before finally returning to his work. I muttered a string of profanity under my breath, much to his amusement, before I finally settled down and continued my own work.
"Okay guys, pencils down," Ms. Vector called all of us to attention. "I have the results from our last Arithmetic exam, which I know a lot of you are excited to find out about."
Luna and I looked at each other nervously. Both of us were anxious to find out how we had done because if we got qualifying scores then we would be entered in a competition at Beauxbatons Academy, which would mean that we would be able to take a week off of school and go to France. Also, school pride and all that.
"I will leave the results up here," Mrs. Vector gestured to the front of the room by the door. "Good luck, all of you!"
With that a large group of students flocked to the little piece of paper pinned up by the door. Luna and I decided to wisely wait until the crowd had dispersed before checking our results. Once we managed to reach the door, we were delighted to find out that we had both qualified for the trip. Luna squealed happily and hugged me spinning us around as we laughed.
"I guess we'll be competing against each other," a voice came from next to my shoulder. I froze and scanned the results one more time. I didn't even think he would be allowed to enter the competition but sure enough, there it was in the same small print as my name: Draco Malfoy. "Don't worry, I'll try not to show you up too badly."
"You little bitc- " before I could even finish that sentence he was out the door and gone, wisely deciding that he had pissed me off enough for the day. I sighed and turned to Luna, who was giving me a knowing look. "What? He's just really annoying. Imagine dealing with him every time you come to school."
"Mhhm. That would get annoying," she responded in a way that let me know she didn't believe a word I said. I rolled my eyes and tried to hide the fact that I was excited at the idea of going to France with him. It bothered me that I wasn't completely mortified by the idea. He's just my friend and sometimes I enjoy hanging out with him. That's all it is. I ignored the smaller voice in my head that was telling me it could be something more.
Our arguments continued to escalate in intensity and frequency to the point where we were often shouting at each other in the middle of class. He, of course, never got in trouble while I usually did.
One day, after a particularly heated argument, I was angrily shoving papers into my book bag and cursing his name to hell and back. Part of me was just amused though. It was almost admirable how talented Draco was at getting under my skin to the point where I was completely uncomposed. I allowed myself a small chuckle as I recalled the details of our most recent argument and closed the bag before getting ready to leave.
"Hey, wait up!" I turned as a tall, redhead walked towards me.
"Um, hello?" I asked.
"Let's walk to our next class together."
"… Okay. You're Ginny right?"
"Yeah, that's me. And you're Hermione?"
I nodded in affirmation and we continued our journey down the hallway for approximately ten more seconds before she broke the silence.
"You and Draco would be cute together."
I immediately tripped over my own feet. Once, I had regained my balance I managed to speak.
"What?" I choked out. I prepared to launch into a tirade asserting that while Draco believed every female near him would fall at his feet, I did not have feelings for him nor would I ever. Before I could, however, Ginny interrupted me.
"Just a thought. We went to elementary school together, so I've known him for a pretty long time," she claimed mischievously.
"Um, good to know."
And with that started a beautiful friendship, in which we constantly meddled in each other's dating lives and supported each other every time our hearts were broken. She quickly became one of my best friends and was one of the only people I confided in about my life at home.
Later that day, I walked down the hallway towards Cross Country practice. It was my last class of the day and after not sleeping at all again last night and starting my period this morning, I was completely exhausted and definitely not a functioning member of society by any means. I barely kept my eyes open as I continued my trek down the hall, hardly even noticing when a certain fair haired boy approached me. Bewildered, I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked to my left, only to see no one there, before glancing to my right and finding Draco walking in step beside me.
"Hey," he said, bumping my shoulder and giving me a weird look. "You feeling okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," I mustered up the same smile I'd been giving everyone else today.
"I know you're lying," he said passively as if he was just commenting on the weather. "What class are you going to?"
I wondered whether I should bother denying it before deciding to let it go like he did. "Cross Country practice. What about you?"
"Computer Science."
"You do know that's the other way?"
"I prefer the scenic route." And with that we fell silent. He continued to walk with me until we reached the gym. I turned to say goodbye only to find that he was already walking off with his hands in his pockets. For some reason, I had felt better than I had felt all day.
Soon afterwards, I found out Draco had his real first girlfriend. The first of many. Her name was Katie Bell and there was absolutely nothing wrong with her. I even considered her to be my friend but for some reason it still stung. When I heard they were dating, I froze and one thing about it bothered me. He hadn't told me. We hadn't talked in a couple of weeks, which seemed weird, but for some reason now it made sense. I shook my head trying to force these thoughts out of my head. Why should he have to tell me? I didn't even know if we were friends. Besides, Katie was pretty much what every guy wanted and a good friend. There were definitely worse people for him to date, so I really shouldn't care. I guess they're a cute couple, if you ignore the fact that she's half his height. Honestly, this is good for both of us. He now has a girlfriend to bother and I can focus on finishing all of my work. I turned back to the paper in front of me and just tried to focus on my essay, trying to ignore the fact that I had plenty of pencils to work with and had been getting all of my work done with time to spare during the past few days.
Class had already started when Draco finally decided to walk in. He was laughing with his friend about something and when he looked up his eyes landed on me. That was probably the first time we had acknowledged each other at all during these past few weeks. He looked at me a little longer before we both turned away back to our conversations with our separate friends. That's just how it was going to be from now on.
They had broken up. It had been probably a month, maybe even less. I had gotten used to his absence in my life and had settled on pretty much ignoring his presence in our Literature and History classes. But since gossip is the lifeblood of teenagers everywhere, I heard almost immediately when they broke up. She had broken up with him, the when and the why was unclear, but I tried not to care regardless. Whatever weird friendship Draco and I had was gone a long time ago and just because he and Katie broke up did not mean we would ever be talking again.
On the other hand, I kept forgetting how wrong I could be when it came to him.
I jumped when I felt a soft kick on my shin and looked up. There he was, sitting across from me after school during our study hall for Arithmetic, as if he hadn't been sitting on the opposite side of the room for an entire month and avoiding me at pretty much all cost. I just stared at him in absolute shock. He had a book open in front of him so I couldn't see all of his face, but I knew he was trying to avoid looking at me. I thought for a long time about what I should do, noticing that Draco hadn't flipped a page in more than ten minutes. He was waiting.
I sighed, hating myself for not being angrier at him, and gently kicked his shin back. I guess I could swallow my need for an apology if it meant we could be friends again. He immediately put the book down and gave me that grin, which I reluctantly knew I had thought of too many times while he had been gone. We then went back to our familiar routine of him playing with my pencils and watching me work, while I just smiled at his antics and once again tried to focus on math.
"I am NOT sitting by you!" I shouted at Draco angrily. "I can barely stand sitting next to you after school, once a week, for only an hour during study hall. You really want to risk me sitting by you on a PLANE with no escape all the way to FRANCE?"
"I heard you the first time," he said rolling his eyes as our friends watched on in amusement.
"Then stop insisting that I'm sitting by you."
"I want you to sit by me."
"WHY?"
"Because you're my best friend."
"I am not. I'm pretty sure I would have to agree to be your best friend."
"Details," he waved his hand as if what I said didn't matter. "We're sitting next to each other."
I just glared at him. We'd been arguing about this for thirty minutes straight at least. "This is not over," I huffed before turning towards the white board and squinting to see the directions through my glasses.
"Hey aren't you applying to get into Advanced Arithmetic next year?" Ginny asked, choosing to distract me from the boy on my other side in order to avoid another argument.
"Yeah, Ms. Vector recommended me for it so I thought I would give it a try. I'm not expecting to get in though."
"Good, you probably won't," Draco said impishly. "You need to actually be smart to get in."
"And you think I'm dumb?"
"Well if the shoe fits."
"I'm going to take that metaphorical shoe and ram it down your throat." My patience was obviously reaching its breaking point.
"Kinky," He smirked. "Regardless, you still won't get in."
"I'm going to make you eat those words."
"I hope you do." And then he gave me a genuine smile, thoroughly confusing me once again. The day I understood Draco Malfoy would be the day I understood what was wrong with humanity. Sighing out of frustration, I turned back to the board and once again tried to make sense of the blurry directions.
"Oh, for fucks sake!" he grabbed my glasses straight off my face and cleaned them on his shirt. "Try them now."
I slowly put the glasses back on. He was right. I could see the directions a little bit better now. "Thanks," I muttered.
"What was that?"
"Don't push it."
A week later the plane was supposed to leave for France.
"You ready to go?" Luna came up next to me holding her dolphin pillow pet, dressed in pajamas, and in general looking like she was ready for a really long nap.
"Yeah, one second," I looked around one more time for the familiar wide grin and silver eyes I had grown so used to.
"I don't think he's coming," she looked at me sadly. Probably thinking that I was disappointed.
"I'm not waiting for him. Who even needs him?" I shrugged. "At least now I'll be able to get some sleep on the plane and actually enjoy this trip."
And with that I got through security, found Padma and Ginny, and the four of us talked and laughed throughout the entire plane ride. But I couldn't completely ignore the part of me that was still worried about the one person who hadn't made it onto the plane. I spent a lot of that plane ride ironically wishing Draco was there sitting next to me.
Sorry it's kind of a short chapter but the trip to France was too long to fit in this one! The next chapter will probably be the end of fourth year and many more characters will be introduced (: If I can get to 10 follows or favorites I'll post the next chapter earlier than I planned!