A/N: Sorry if this a short chapter, I promise it will be longer next time…of course, this means a longer period of time for me to get it out…
Hermione cowered into herself, frightened, looking at Draco with wide brown eyes. On the contrary, Draco's eyes narrowed.
"I don't think you should be asking me who I am," he said coldly. Hermione looked slightly offended.
"Why can't you just tell me who you are?" she asked practically. Draco opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it looking puzzled.
"'Cause I don't know," he replied simply, frowning. Hermione tilted her head like a puppy, a smile tugging at her lips. "Who are you?" he asked her quickly.
"Umm…good question," she said, giggling. He sighed irritably.
"Do you know what happened?" he asked, tracing the floor with his finger and then pushing himself up with his hand. He stood up wiping the dust off of his hands in disgust.
"How should I know?" Hermione countered, hopping up herself. She looked around and raised an eyebrow. "Weird place this- all stone and no light." Draco nodded in agreement.
"You'd think they could at least have a couple windows," he added, looking around the drafty corridor with distaste. Hermione suddenly started rooting through her pockets, turning them inside out and having a few bits of parchment flutter out. Draco looked at her curiously. "What on earth are you doing?"
"Looking for identification," she muttered, triumphantly coming up with a folded sheet of homework. On the top in very neat handwriting was written 'Hermione Granger for Professor Binns' class'. Draco looked over her shoulder and laughed.
"Hermoine? Weird name," he commented, making Hermione glare.
"Well I didn't choose it did I?" she said, folding it back up again. Crossing her arms over her chest, she looked at Draco critically.
"You don't look like you'd have any sort of a nice name either- maybe Mortus or something," she remarked, making the boy fume with indignation.
"I will not have some nancy boy Latin crap name," he argued, looking in his own pockets. Producing a note from Blaise, he looked at it and widened his eyes. "This girl has shitty handwriting." Hermione snatched it from him and read it quickly.
"Wow she really does…but let's see then, it says 'Dear Dr-something, I can't tell what." Draco rolled his eyes and grabbed it back.
"Thank you Captain Obvious," he quipped, looking back down at the note. "God, just my luck that I lose my memory with a bossy know-it-all." Hermione narrowed her eyes.
"At least you're not stuck with a snotty idiot," she argued. Draco however was ignoring her, and trying to decipher the note.
"I think it says-" he snorted in disgust and threw it on the floor. "I am not about to go around with the name Druce." Hermione, who was in the middle of mentally trying to grasp a memory, snorted abruptly with laughter.
"Druce?!? That is so much worse than Hermoine!" Scowling, Draco ignored the howling girl and sat down on the floor again, sulking. Hermione looked down; her expression softened at the sight of the slightly hurt expression on his face. Without hesitation, she sat down next to him and stopped laughing. "Look, I'm sorry ok? I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." Draco looked at her suspiciously.
"Hurt my feelings? Right," he said sarcastically. Hermione gave him a Come-On-You-Know-I'm-Right look. He rolled his eyes. "OK fine, forgiven." She grinned happily.
"Good. I may not know who I am really, but I can tell I don't like when people are angry with me."
"It's odd not to know where you are or who you are," Draco said, looking at her. "I guess we'll have to stick this one out together." Hermione nodded.
"Yeah." There was silence for a moment before Hermione squealed.
"What is it??" Draco asked in alarm. Hermione laughed and took out a long wooden stick.
"It poked me…what's this thing?" Draco shrugged, taking it from her fingers and looking at it. A few purple stars came out of it as she passed it to him, making Draco drop it in panic and Hermione yelp. "What did it do?" she asked in a hushed voice. Now a safe two feet away from the object in question, Draco reassumed his superior air.
"Probably a trap of some sort. Let's get away from here." Grabbing Hermione by the hand, he helped her up. They looked at their hands joined and dropped them immediately, blushing like schoolgirls- or schoolboy in Draco's case. "Erm…I think I see some light from over there!" Draco started to walk briskly towards it but was stopped when a warm hand took his shyly.
"We have to stick this one out together," she reminded him slyly. He shrugged and grinned slightly, walking down the hallway with the pretty girl holding his hand.
--
They ended up in a very large room with a sweeping spiral staircase. To their right, they could hear chatting and happy voices. Hermione looked at the double doors curiously. "What's in there you reckon?" Draco shrugged and started to go off towards it, but was snapped back when Hermione didn't move. "What's that?" Her voice and finger shaking, she pointed towards a ghost near the ceiling. Gulping (and fighting his instinct to scream) Draco shrugged again.
"I dunno…maybe we should go." Nodding and white faced, Hermione let Draco lead her towards the double doors. The ghost, spotting them and giving an eyebrow quirk of surprise, swooped down and landed in front of them. Hermione screamed and Draco's jaw dropped in shock.
"Get away from us!!!" Hermione shrieked, brandishing her wand like a sword. Nearly Headless Nick looked at them, his eyes flickering from their clasped hands to their shocked faces and was very confused.
"Hermione, what are you doing with Draco Malfoy?" he asked slowly, trying to figure the situation out.
"Hermione? Is that how it's pronounced?" she asked, turning to Draco.
"I guess…and who's Draco Malfoy?" he asked Nearly Headless Nick inquisitively.
"Um…maybe I should get Dumbledore…" he replied looking both amused and worried at the same time.
"Who's Dumbledore?" Hermione asked while Draco sniggered at the name.
"Headmaster of the school," Nick explained. "Come on, you don't want to go in there-" he motioned towards the Great Hall, thinking of the reactions the school would most likely have. However, Hermione had other plans.
"But it smells so good!" she protested, sniffing the air appreciatively. "It smells like sausages…I probably like sausages."
"Who doesn't like sausages?" Draco said grinning. "I'm for some food." Nick's pale eyes widened.
"No! Don't go in there! I swear it will lead to no good!" Hermione laughed.
"I'm too hungry…come on Druce." Draco and Hermione pushed open the doors to a laughing body of students. Draco looked at the mass of faces in amusement, as they had now stopped whatever they were doing to look at them.
"Do you think maybe we're famous or something?"
"Hermione?!?" Ron came up holding a drumstick in his hand, his jaw dropped. "What are you doing?!?" Hermione looked at him quizzically.
"So I know you? Well I'm getting some food." Looking completely befuddled (A/N: funny word), he turned to his side at an equally perplexed Harry, holding a goblet of pumpkin juice.
"Are you all right?" he asked anxiously. Hermione looked up at Draco.
"They really seem on edge don't they?" she asked him, laughing slightly. He nodded, feeling an inexplicable internal feeling of dislike when he looked at the two.
"What's your problem?" he asked Harry and Ron, smirking.
"What the hell are you doing Malfoy? Did you enchant her or something?" Ron demanded furiously. Draco was confused.
"I'm Malfoy? Why do they all seem to hate me so much?" Looking down at Hermione (5'5" to his 5'11"), he raised an inquisitive eyebrow. She grinned.
"Well, you were an awful prat back in the corridor," she pointed out.
"True," he mused. Ron meanwhile had gone a strange purple color.
"'Back in the corridor'? What's that supposed to mean?" he bellowed, forgetting he was being watched by everyone.
"Well, we woke up next to each other there and couldn't remember anything," Hermione explained, squeezing Draco's hand slightly out of nervousness. Ron couldn't seem to process this.
"Hey do you suppose we got really, really drunk or something?" Draco asked Hermione. She let out a shrill giggle, which was probably a good thing because Ron was now cursing Draco off so badly that he'd receive a year's worth of detentions for it.
"You woke up next to each other?" Harry asked, his voice rising slightly out of alarm. Hermione nodded, and then realization hit her.
"You don't suppose we…" she stopped dead in horror. Draco fought the smirk threatening to cover his face.
"Maybe," he said, making Hermione make a face.
"Ew."
"'Ew?'" Draco asked, offended. "Hey, be nice." The Hogwarts students listening laughed at this; Malfoy telling someone to be nice? At the laughter, the four turned around to face them as if just realizing they were there.
"Oh hello," Hermione greeted them pleasantly. "My name's Hermione, and this is Druce." There was a second's pause-
-and then the entire Hall burst into laughter. Puzzled and hurt, Hermione looked up at Draco with tears in her eyes. "I was only trying to be friendly," she said, her voice shaking precariously. Despite his instincts, he softened.
"It's ok," he reassured her awkwardly, smoothing her hair out. Ron looked about ready to snap, with Harry holding him back ('There's obviously something wrong here Ron, calm down!'). Hermione shivered slightly under his touch, feeling inside like she should be slapping him. She closed her eyes and fought it; she succeeded.
Suddenly Hermione and Draco looked at each other, and simultaneously and silently collapsed on the floor.
--
"Hermione? Hermione, are you ok?" Hermione opened her eyes warily, her vision foggy and blurred. The anxious faces of Harry and Ron were first to register in her clogged mind, making her smile.
"Hi guys." They breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh good you're ok," Ron said happily, sitting on a chair near the bed.
"Where am I?" Hermione asked, sitting up. Their eyes widened.
"You don't remember?" Harry asked uneasily. Hermione looked around slowly, the colors of her dorm room entering her eyesight.
"Oh…why aren't I in the Hospital Wing?" she asked. Ron and Harry grinned joyfully, and both jumped into telling her what had happened.
"And you came in all happy and giggly-"
"It was so weird, I knew something was wrong-"
"-and with Malfoy on your arm!"
"-we got you some pumpkin juice look-"
"Wait whoa, stop," Hermione interrupted, putting her hands up for quiet. They complied sheepishly. "Let's start over, shall we?" They nodded, and bit by bit told her what had happened. At the end of it, Hermione was completely speechless.
"Me. With Malfoy. Holding hands." Harry bit his lip trying not to laugh at the incredulous look on her face.
"It was pretty weird yeah," he replied while Ron made a face along with Hermione.
"Weird? It was deeply disturbing 'Mione," he cut in. "Honestly, that red thing obviously made some sort of impression! That thing was bad Dark Magic."
"Ginny's still out," Harry said to Hermione's expression. "They don't know when she'll be up." Hermione couldn't look at Ron's face for the pain it showed.
"We're going to the library."
--
"What the bloody hell?!?" Draco roared, leaping of the Common Room couch. Blaise smirked, amused.
"I'm not lying."
"Of course you're lying! That's insane! Even if I lost my memory I wouldn't touch her for all the Galleons in Gringotts!" he argued fiercely.
"You've already practically got all the gold in Gringotts," Blaise pointed out. Not to be swayed, Draco didn't let this bother him.
"For all the girls in London then," he continued. "If this a side effect of that bloody Doomrae, I think I'll snap." Blaise waited for him to finish patiently, tapping her foot on the floor as he paced and ranted.
"-and why would I hold her hand? If I were to assault the Mudblood I'd at least snog her or something," he was saying when Blaise finally decided to intervene.
"Look Draco, just let it go all right? I'll make sure it doesn't happen again," she promised, flashing him one of her trademark toothpaste commercial smiles. He looked at her suspiciously.
"Why should I trust you?" he growled. Blaise smirked again.
"Who else are you going to trust?"
--