Title: Examinations
(Subtitle: Loser. Kisses. Winner.)
Author: luckdragon
Rating: oh, PG again I suppose
Summary: Life is full of tests. There's nothing that says they can't be fun.
Disclaimer: I don't own them, but I have invited them out to play.
Author's Note: Well, I know it's getting redundant, but thank you once again! I am still so glad that you're all enjoying this. Hope you enjoy this part too!
Hermione understood that arriving at a location before someone else was a curious way of chasing said person. However, she couldn't think of any other way to make her approach, so she settled down on the floor in the basement corridor again.
She opened a book against her lap and studied as best she could between her frenzied thoughts. She had no idea how long she'd have to wait.
Hopefully not too long. The frenzied thoughts left little space for anything else.
It didn't turn out to be very long, actually.
She saw him walk across the crossbar of the T intersection formed by her hallway and his, and she saw him see her. It wasn't much, a mere shift in the angle of his head and his gaze.
He continued past the end of her corridor.
He didn't even slow down.
Hermione hadn't dared think that he might actually ignore her.
She sighed despondently, shutting her book and her eyes, the latter briefly. She moved to open her bag, which was resting beside her; apparently there was no use sitting down here in the cold.
"Going somewhere?" a voice asked from her opposite side.
She started and twisted around hastily.
"How did you do that?" she exclaimed in a voice more angry than she had intended.
Draco dropped to the floor beside her, although he maintained a perceptible distance.
"Well, the Slytherin dorms are just round the corner," he explained, "and Snape's office is near here as well. I know these hallways quite well, actually."
"Ah," she acknowledged, finding nothing better to say.
"Back to your helpful studying spot, I see," he commented, after a slight pause.
"Yes, well, the library was too loud tonight," she mumbled.
"Too loud?" he asked incredulously.
If only they knew, Hermione thought briefly. For the second time that day, she felt like she should laugh aloud when she was truthfully in no mood to do so.
"Yes," Hermione said shortly, feeling more and more of her irritation seep into her voice by the second. She wasn't here for small talk, after all. His glib-as-usual attitude had her becoming increasingly more nettled.
So she asked.
"Why are you so cross all of a sudden?"
There. It was out.
"You're the one who seems cross at the moment, not me."
Oh. Oh.
The prat.
"Fine," she snapped, and threw her book back into her bag to further punctuate her sharp speech. She moved to stand.
"Wait," Draco said quietly.
It was a subtle request, but he might have yelled it for how hard it hit her.
Had he just asked her to wait?
Hermione turned to face him, trying to suppress her expression of hope.
Had he just asked her to wait?
"I'm waiting," she said in a low voice.
He wasn't looking at her. Instead, his hands had suddenly grabbed all of his attention.
"I just – I just don't like changing the rules in the middle of a game," he said haltingly. "Sometimes it just makes it feel like a different game altogether."
Hermione couldn't help but let loose an bewildered chuckle at this confession.
"You say that as if it weren't an entirely different game from the start."
"Well, it wasn't really."
"What? Do tell me, how was it not a different game? I really fail to see the connection," she argued, feeling even more as though everything was edging backwards beyond the reach of her comprehension.
"Well, it did start out as another way to torment you, didn't it?"
Hermione looked at him skeptically. "That's all this was – a way to get a rise out of each other?"
"Granger," he said in a changed tone that worried her in some odd, delicious way, "was that a dirty pun?"
"No! No," she gasped, feeling her face flush. "No," she repeated vehemently, dropping his gaze.
He was still looking at her, though.
And dropping something into her lap.
Hermione straightened the paper and bit back a grin.
It was the most recent set of Arithmancy problems.
"I missed four questions – four!" he revealed. "Horrid concept, can't quite get my head around it. So…"
"So?" she said mischievously.
"So, how'd you fair?"
"Only two and a half," she disclosed, cutting him a glance out of the corner of her eye.
"Where's your proof?"
"In my room."
"I'm afraid I can't accept your word, and therefore, I win."
Hermione began to chuckle. "Talk about changing the rules!"
"Well, as we've established that rule-changing is legal, I will be taking advantage of it."
She was laughing in earnest now, for reasons she didn't entirely understand. It wasn't really all that funny.
It couldn't possibly be that she was that happy.
The rapidly turning tables caused her to tilt her head to the side a bit, to see just what he was doing. This, in turn, enabled her to fully appreciate his performance as he painted his features with the most innocent expression she had ever seen him wear.
She mentally filed it under "The Evil Looks of Draco Malfoy."
"Well?" he prompted.
"Bloody bastard," she shot back mirthfully.
He barely had time to retort, "Language, Miss Granger," before she had slid her hands around his neck and stolen his ability to speak at all by covering his mouth with her own.
They both went into the kiss smiling.
Hermione, however, had lunged over and was stuck in a rather uncomfortable position. She winced back a bit as she attempted to rearrange herself, and Draco managed to maneuver her so that she was sitting with her legs towards the wall, beside him, facing him, nearly in his lap.
He had grabbed her and angled her to his advantage.
His hands on her hips had made her burn.
Then again, his arms around her and the way he was now tilting her back slightly weren't so bad either.
However, something else was creeping into her consciousness.
She could hear her heart beating. She could feel his. That could only mean that the rhythmic noise she heard behind her was –
– footsteps.
Footsteps that had stopped not far away.
Draco and Hermione broke apart, exchanging a stunned glance. She guiltily dropped her eyes to his shoulder, while he dared to look over hers.
Who could it be? Hermione's mind went whirling. It had to be a Slytherin – no one else would be in the dungeons at this time of night.
Unless they were planning on snogging a Slytherin, her brain tossed in wickedly.
She bit her lip and felt compelled to return to panicking.
So… Who? Crabbe? Goyle? Zambini? Parkinson? Oh, how Draco could twist this. Couldn't he? Perhaps not. Clearly he was a willing participant, clearly… wasn't he?
She became aware that in the midst of being taken aback, Draco was also fighting back a smirk.
That couldn't be good.
Draco loosened his grip just a bit without releasing her entirely.
Hermione risked turning her head to look over her shoulder.
She saw black shoes and black robes.
Her head tipped up.
It was a Slytherin, all right, if you wanted to call him that. It was not one that she had expected.
Severus Snape looked down at his students with a look of vague horror skirting across his features.