She splashed into the icy cold water. Hermione started to swim towards the surface. Suddenly she felt something scaly grip her legs. She twisted around and saw a Grindylow clutch its long fingers around her leg and began to pull her down into the depths of the water. She kicked her legs about, trying to shake it off and swim away but more Grindylows appeared. They all gripped her arms and legs. Their teeth gnawing at her calves. Hermione struggled to break free but there were just too many Grindylows. The pain was intense and she was losing air. They were dragging her down, down, down…
Hermione's arms burned under the pressure of the Grindylows' spindly fingers. Their grasp was strong and there was not much she could do. She couldn't reach her wand, which was in the pocket of her robes because the Grindylows held her arms too tightly.
Just when she thought all hope was gone she felt their grip loosen. Deciding she would never get another chance to escape she quickly tore away from the herd of angry Grindylows and swam towards the water's surface, not daring to look behind.
As her face broke through the surface she gasped for air, thankful to have finally gotten away from the water demons. She heard something behind her. She turned around and saw…
"Malfoy!" Hermione gasped, shocked to see Draco Malfoy treading water about less than a meter away from her.
"Granger?" Draco looked just as stunned to see her.
"Wha… What are you doing here?" She stuttered, wiping her hair out of her eyes, partly hoping that he might just be her imagination.
"I'd like to ask you the same thing, Granger," He eyed her carefully. What was she doing in the lake?
As if she had read his thoughts she answered, " I fell in and then these Grindylows came out of nowhere and attacked me. What about you? What were you doing in the lake?"
"I… I dropped my wand." Draco was still in shock over the whole incident.
Hermione's brow furrowed in confusion. "Dropped your wand?" She shook her head.
"In the lake. Yeah, then the Grindylows attacked me too." He shrugged.
After that there was a few seconds of awkward silence. The only sound to be heard was the rippling of the water. It was Hermione who broke the silence.
She gazed up from the water into Draco's gray eyes. Their eyes locked for a second before Hermione looked away, over his shoulder at the castle.
"Um… uh thanks, I guess. You may not have realized it at the time but you… uh… you saved my life." She looked back into Draco's eyes and gave him a small smile.
Draco was surprised. He had saved Granger? The Mud-blood? How could he do such a thing? Then he relaxed and reassured himself that it was an accident, he didn't know he was saving her. He looked deep into Hermione's dark brown eyes, which held a special twinkle. He returned a small smile back to her.
Then he looked down at himself and realized he was shivering. He looked up and noticed Hermione was too. "Maybe we'd better climb out before we catch a cold," He smiled.
Hermione agreed and they reached over to the side of the lake and remove themselves from the water.
They stared at each other and laughed. Their robes were soaked through and dripping wet.
Even though he knew it wouldn't do much good Draco felt the urge to pick up the ends of his robes and wring the water out.
Hermione eyed him, took out her wand and with a simple spell and swishing movement they were both completely dry.
Draco looked himself over and patted his robes as though searching to see whether the spell had really worked. He glanced back up at Hermione. She gave him a grin as she placed her wand back into her pocket.
"Well, thanks again, Malfoy. I'll… I'll see ya round. Bye," With one last smile she turned around, picked her bag up, and walked towards the castle.
Draco stood, frozen on the spot. His insides felt funny when she smiled at him like that, like he had butterflies buzzing around in there or something and he couldn't help thinking, Hermione's not all bad. Then with a stunning realization he quickly shook his head. No! No! She's a Gryffindor! A Mud-blood! He couldn't believe it, he saved Granger. I saved Hermione Granger! He couldn't help feeling rather proud of him self.
He began to head toward the castle. He felt reasonably cheerful and even whistled as he walked. And this time he didn't flick his wand about.