1 Day… or 24 Hours
Summary: Not a lot can happen in one day, but more than you ever imagined can happen in twenty-four hours. If you were stuck with your worst enemy for one day, what would you do? One day can be short, or twenty-four times as long.
Chapter 2: The First Hour
Time: 7:35 PM
Clutching the plastic bag with all of her recently purchased books, Hermione ran through the dusty streets of Hogsmeade. Because Hermione was running, the bag began swinging, causing the force of the books to break through the bag and tumble to the ground.
"Darn it," Hermione muttered as she reached down to pick up her books, brushing all the dirt off of them. She casually glanced at her timepiece around her wrist, and noticed that it was 7:34; only one minute till curfew.
'You should be a role model if you still want that chance of becoming Head Girl,' Hermione thought, 'that means being on time!'
Tick…tick…tick… The second hand on her timepiece seemed to move incredibly fast.
'Almost there!' Hermione could see the lighted street sign for the Three Broomsticks, and quickened her pace.
Tick…tick…tick… Just as Hermione reached the entryway for the Three Broomsticks, her timepiece changed to 7:35.
'No one will know,' Hermione thought, 'I'll just slip in quietly and everything will be just fine.'
The door to the Three Broomsticks was open, so Hermione ran right at it, hoping to reach her destination soon.
CLUNK
Hermione tumbled back, falling down three steps. "What the…" she looked at the door, feeling the red heat spread up her cheeks. No one was standing in the doorway, so why couldn't she get inside?
Cautiously, she reached up and touched what should have been an empty space leading inside the Three Broomsticks. A small buzz pulsed through her hand and she involuntarily moved her hand away.
She tried again, receiving the same results as her first attempt.
The time was 7:36, and for all she knew, she was stuck in Hogsmeade.
xoxox
The corpulent lady in front of Draco had finally paid, so Draco handed the cashier his bag of candy.
"Is that it, sir?" the petite blonde cashier asked Draco, winking at him in the process.
"Umm, yeah," Draco answered, turned off by the girl's blunt flirting.
"That'll be 5 sickles, and while you're here, your name would be great too, so I could owl you sometime," the girl gave Draco a phony smile.
Draco handed her the money, and grabbed his bag, "Malfoy," he paused to give the James Bond effect, "Draco Malfoy."
The girl had obviously heard of the name Malfoy, because she seemed to shrink away from the counter out of fear.
Draco laughed. He loved how people feared him.
He glanced at his new dragon-skin timepiece, "7:34" he said to know one in particular.
As Draco began to walk, the full meaning of the time sunk into his head, "Crap!" and he started running towards the Three Broomsticks.
He saw Hermione Granger sitting right out side the Three Broomsticks looking quite dazed.
Not giving it a second thought, he ran past her and right into an invisible barrier where the door should have been. "Ouch!" Draco clutched his head and stumbled backwards near where Hermione was sitting, staring up at him.
xoxox
7:36PM
After watching Draco's few miserable attempts at getting inside the Three Broomsticks, Hermione spoke, "Look at your timepiece."
"What the…?" Draco looked down at his timepiece. "7:36? And your point is, Mudblood?"
Hermione grimaced at his word choice, but chose to ignore him. "We're one minute late. I guess Dumbledore was really serious when he told us that we had to be back by curfew. Didn't think he would lock us out though."
Draco's rage overtook him, "Wait till my father here's about this!" he shouted and ran at the door, fist in front of him ready to strike.
Draco pounded his fist at the invisible barrier and yelped. The dulled pain that went through him hurt, and was enough to knock him back to his senses.
Regaining his composure, Draco slowly turned back to where Hermione was sitting. "Well, since we are obviously stuck here together," Draco stressed the word 'together' and made to make it sound like the worst thing possible, "you are going to listen to me and do what I say, Mudblood."
"Over my dead body," Hermione glared at Draco.
Draco whipped out his wand and pointed it at Hermione, "I'm sure that can be arranged."
"Why, you slimy ferret!" Hermione yelled as she stood up. "Do you really want me to turn you back into, "Ferret Boy", ruler of all the bouncing Slytherins? Or did it go,"The Bouncing Ferret. Ruler of all the Slytherins?" Hermione commented, enraged at his pompous behavior.
"Empty treats, babe, that's all they will ever be," Draco sheathed his wand, and turned on his heels, causing a storm of dust to fly up in Hermione's face.
Hermione, being the more reasonable of the two knew that they had to stay together. She stomped her feet several times, then started running to catch up with Draco.
xoxo
7:43PM
"Ummm… Malfoy?" Hermione asked, skipping along side him as they roamed aimlessly through the streets of Hogsmeade.
"What, Mudblood," Draco asked, quite annoyed with her presence.
"Well first of all, since we don't exactly know how long we are going to be here, don't you think we should try calling each other by our first names?"
"Fine, whatever. It's Hermione, right?" Draco asked, in mock stupidity.
"Haha, very funny," she paused, "Draco."
Nothing more was said; there was nothing really more to say between two enemies who just formed a temporary alliance. And for them, the silence spoke a thousand words.
After several more minutes of walking, Hermione broke the silence. "Draco, why isn't there anybody here? You know, the village seems kind of deserted."
Draco didn't say anything; instead he walked over to the infamous Honeydukes and peered into the windows. "Nobody's here," he looked at his timepiece, "and 7:50 isn't that late."
"It's like a ghost town," Hermione remarked, "It seems that everybody disappeared after 7:35. This too weird.",
"Yeah, I guess it's just you and me," Draco said awfully quiet.
Draco let Hermione walk ahead so he could catch a glimpse of her. It was the first time he really noticed since they had been alone how she had changed. Her hair no longer resembled an overgrown garden where you don't know what is going on, and her soft facial features blended well with her overall composure, giving her a natural beauty. She looked nothing like the chicks in his PlayWitch magazine, but he had to admit, she was kind of pretty. Only kind of.
Hermione slowed down a little so she was even with Draco. "This reminds me of all the old Western movies my parents used to show me when I was little. I remember sitting on my dad's lap eating popcorn watching the lone cowboy walk through the black and white deserted street. You know, right before another cowboy shows up to have a shootout?" she says while putting her fingers in to a gun form and pointing them up at the sky, pretending to shoot.
"No, I don't know," Draco said, confused about what a movie was.
"Oh, right. It's a muggle thing called television. You'd probably like it."
"I probably wouldn't," Draco said, ruining the mood.
Mocking Draco, Hermione spoke, "Oh Humbug! I don't like anything to do with muggles. I am Mr. Big-Bad-Slytherin-Muggle Hater-Draco- Malfoy. Sorry I forgot."
Draco just rolled his eyes, halting the conversation between the two teens.
xoxox
8:01PM
"Draco?" Hermione asked.
They were both sitting at a rod-iron table in front of the Frothy Coffee, looking out at the moonlit sky.
"What now? Doesn't your mouth ever stop moving?" Draco asked, annoyed with Hermione's constant talking.
Hermione, ignoring Draco's rude comment, continued on with her question, maybe a little too bluntly, "Do you bend a certain way?"
"What?!?" Draco sputtered, turning his full attention to Hermione. "What do you mean do I bend a certain way?"
"Well," Hermione paused to stifle her giggles, "You know, do you like girls or boys?"
"YES!" Draco answered, a little too quickly.
"Yes you like boys? Or yes you like girls?" Hermione asked innocently, portraying a sickeningly sweet smile.
"I like girls!" Draco said, standing up. Then more relaxed, "Why do you ask?"
"Well, I don't know. This would be kind of a romantic moment; sitting with the opposite sex under a moonlit sky in a deserted village…"
Draco cut Hermione off, "Forget it. It doesn't matter whether you are guy or a girl, I still wouldn't lower myself to a mud...muggleborn."
Hermione rolled her eyes and continued her sentence, "as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, we will also most likely have to find a shelter and spend the night together, and it would be kind of awkward if you were… you know."
Draco drew in a deep breath and let it out in a loud sigh. "Do I look gay to you?"
"Ummm…" Hermione walked over to him a rustled her hands through his slicked back hair, causing it to fall around his face. "Now you don't."
xoxox
8:25PM
"Is this the best you can find?" Hermione asked, covering herself in the Witch Weekly newspaper to protect herself from the wind.
Draco waved his wand and the newspaper transformed into a blanket. "Better?"
Draco had found a small cave towards the end of the village and decided that they could camp out there for the night. He used his wand to transform two big rocks into pillows and a Squibbler Magazine and Witch Weekly newspaper into two blankets.
"Much better," Hermione complied to their makeshift hotel room.
"Good. Now go to sleep, maybe we'll be able to get back to Hogwarts tomorrow," Draco said, and moved his blanket and pillow to the opposite side of the cave; opposite of Hermione.
"But," Hermione looked at her timepiece, "it's only 8:29! I don't normally go to bed until at least 10:30!" Hermione complained.
"Go…to…bed…" Draco stressed each word, only head as mumbles by Hermione.
Just when Draco thought Hermione was asleep, she sat up and whined, "I'm hungry."
"This is going to be a long night," Draco muttered under his breath before covering his ears with his pillow.
xoxox
8:35PM
Oh, if only Draco knew how long of a night it would be… 12 hours, right?
xoxox
A/N: Jenn here. I hoped you guys liked the first real chapter. For those of you who don't know, or haven't read our other story, there are two of us writing this, me and Catie. We alternate writing each chapter. Please remember to review; it only takes like 20 seconds (or a minute if you want to write a long review… we always love those!), and it makes us want to write more (that means more chapters out sooner!). I know you guys all have at least 20 seconds you can spare of your day, so please, be kind to aspiring writers and do unto others as you would want them to do to you!
Thanks to all who reviewed the prologue:
· Carissa
· XxAnimeLover14xX
· PINSXandXSPIKES
· Charolastras
Oh and one more thing before I forget: Please R&R the story that I am currently writing solo. It's called Roses, and my other penname is Tickled Pink89. Thanks a bunch!