Quick Note: Hi, it's me again!!! Thanks for clicking on this story. I really hope you enjoy reading this!!! I have another quick note at the end of this chapter. I don't want to write it here coz you might be biased while reading this... So anyways, next chapter will be the FINAL stunt!!! What do you think they will do? LOL... Please don't forget to review. Thanks!
Disclaimer: NOt mine, as always.
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Chapter 8: Things you don't want near you
It was 8:00 in the morning and Draco was dressed up and ready for the challenge of the day. He was sitting on the side of his bed reading his Potions Book waiting patiently for Hermione to emerge out of the bathroom.
After a few minutes, Hermione came out of the bathroom already changed, but still drying her hair with a towel.
"We really do need all the help we can get!" said Draco not looking up from his book.
"I told you Draco," said Hermione sitting on her bed exasperated, "it doesn't work that way. We should win this fair and square! I thought we worked this out already."
"You have too many values!" argued Draco putting down his book while shaking his head. "These are Muggles! We could easily win the 1 Million Grand Prize in a heartbeat if we want to."
"All the more we shouldn't take advantage of magic! We could win by our own skills!" insisted Hermione. "Look at the 1st stunt. You said it yourself, we can do it if we believe."
"You don't understand it do you? Didn't you see? We almost got eliminated on the second stunt. It was just a lucky break we're still here. Yesterday, if it wasn't for Dragoon's help, we'd probably be on our way back to London." said Draco standing up and starting pacing the room back and forth.
"I don't want to lose, but I also don't want to cheat." answered Hermione also standing up reaching for her brush and running it through her hair.
"Perhaps I didn't stress it clear enough. We NEED to win this. It's not just about winning. I need the money." Draco stopped walking and willed Hermione to look into his eyes. "If you want to be my friend, you have to let this go."
"This is all about the money?" asked Hermione curiosity suddenly building up inside of her. Draco never told her what he needed the money for.
"Oh for heaven's sake! I don't even know why I'm trying to convince you on this one!" Draco made his way to the door and called out, "Let's go, Damian must be in the Dining Area waiting for us already."
Hermione put down her brush and started toward the door.
All of a sudden, Draco stopped dead by the door and blocked Hermione's way. Instantly, she raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Let's make a deal..." started Draco as soon as a hint of irritation crossed Hermione's face. "This challenge today, if we win, we'll play the game fair and square without magic. If we don't you should consider the non-magic strategy... Just be sure we don't get eliminated, alright?"
Hermione dropped her jaw and looked at him hard. "You are unbelievable! Won't you just give it up?"
Instead of answering back, Draco just stared at Hermione without any expression at all. He didn't even budge when she tried to push him out of her way. Finally giving up on Draco's stubborness, Hermione gave out a huge sigh and then muttered through clenched teeth, "Fine then, if that makes you happier." Hermione crossed her arms again on her chest and then rolled her eyes.
Almost instantly, Draco moved out of the way with a satisfied smirk. "I knew you'd see it my way." Draco then patted Hermione's head like she was a dog and then quickly turned toward the Dining Area leaving Hermione scowling at his back.
Hermione had a sudden urge to pound the living daylights out of Draco but stopped herself in time. "Cool it!" she said to herself. "That's Draco Malfoy, what do you expect?"
In the Dining Area, Draco and Hermione ate their fill of French toast, bacon, eggs, ham and sausages in silence constantly exchanging glances with each other. When Draco looked up, he would see Hermione staring at him. The same also went with Hermione.
"Please stop staring at me!" complained Draco after catching Hermione watching him the third time.
Hermione raised her eyebrows and answered, "Stare at you? Please Draco, give me a little credit. Watching you shove food inside your mouth isn't something I would call entertaining, in fact it's quite disturbing. Don't ask me why. I wonder why you always think that I like looking at you... Do you think I have a crush on you or something?"
Draco rolled his eyes and stuck out his tongue at Hermione.
Suddenly a watery piece of sausage slipped from Draco's mouth and landed on his chin.
Hermione watched in stunned silence. Then suddenly recovering from what she saw, Hermione laughed so loud everybody in the dining room turned their heads toward her. "NOw if you did that all the time, your fantasy of me staring at you might be reality."
Horribly embarassed, Draco quickly took his table napkin and wiped the slab off his face. At once, Draco turned scarlet red and then looked down at his plate.
"Oh cheer up!" said Hermione trying desperately to control her laughter. "No need to be embarassed. I'm the only one who saw that anyway. But I wish I had a camera with me, that scene should go down as one of 'Draco's Precious Moments."
Draco stuck out his tongue again in an attempt to irritate Hermione as well as look tough and untouched by his faux pa.
"Careful now! What happened a while ago could last me a lifetime... No need to repeat what had just happened okay?"
After eating, Hermione and Draco proceeded toward the limousine and rode in silence to another unknown location for their next stunt.
An hour later, Draco and Hermione felt the limousine roll to a stop. When the two looked out, they were in front of an old abandoned house with the roof threatening to fall and the paint almost gone.
"I have a bad feeling about this. This reminds me of the fish eyes." said Draco as he departed the limousine.
"Tell me bout it, I'm starting to dread the next 2 hours myself." Hermione agreed looking with dread at the same house Draco was staring at.
Inside the house, Draco and Hermione found the other 3 couples scattered all around the room talking quietly with their respective partners.
"I wonder what they're talking about." said Hermione glancing nervously at a draped thing in the leftmost corner of the room. She had an odd feeling that their stunt would evolve around it.
"From 7 couples, down to 4! You should be proud to be here today!" Jonah's voice said as he stepped into the light directly in front of the couples.
"Welcome, once again!" said Jonah smiling at each of the women and nodding at the men. "I'm sure you're excited to know what your going to do... Today's stunt will involve this."
Sure enough, Jonah removed the drapes off the thing Hermione noticed situated in the leftmost corner of the room and almost instantly the room was filled with an eerie silence..
At once, the color disappeared from Draco's face. Hermione held him steady as he tried to walk backward, away from what Jonah just unfolded.
In the leftmost corner of the room stood a transparent tube filled with water around 15 ft. in diameter and 10 ft. tall. On the surface, there were over a hundred black mice, rats, cockroaches, bugs and worms swimming for dear life.
Draco almost fainted.
"In the bottom of this tube are 10 gold coins. Both of you will be placed inside the tube along with these rats and critters. When the time starts, you have to retrieve the gold coins from the bottom of this container as fast as you can and place it on this basket." shouted Jonah cheerily.
"Okay we can do this!" soothed Hermione as Draco looked on. He had fear written all over his features.
"In my opinion, this is fairly easy." said Jonah encouragingly. "Of course, some of these bugs are already dead. The key is handling this stunt expertly and not freaking out. The winner will win £10,000. And of course, the couple with the slowest time will have to go home. You guys ready? Karl and Tanya, you're up!"
Draco was absolutely horrified. He started shaking involuntarily and clutched Hermione's arm tightly. Hermione squeezed his hand and smiled reassuringly.
"All we have to do is swim to the bottom and put the coins in the basket. You will only encounter the yucky things on the surface of the water. We're going to be fine." stated Hermione looking Draco in the eyes.
"I w-w-w-wish I h-ad m-y w-w-and." stammered Draco freaking out.
Hermione felt a deep compassion for Draco. It was very odd to see him as he was.
"I h-h-a-te R-r-r-a-a-t-t-ts," continued Draco. "Ph-ph-o-e-b-b-i-a."
Out of nowhere, Hermione gave Draco a hug to comfort him. He was trembling like crazy and that alarmed Hermione to no end.
"You can do it, I know you can!" whispered Hermione. "You said it yourself, believe you can!" Then, Hermione added, "Do it for the money."
Draco's trembling slightly lessened as he heard Hermione's comforting words. However, he still looked horrified.
"I know it!" Draco cast his eyes on the floor and said "We're going home."
"No, we're not!" stated Hermione plainly very determined to convince Draco they could do it. "Not now, not after what we've gone through!"
She took Draco's face in her hands and forced him to look into her eyes. "Remember a while ago, you said we need magic, I think you're right!"
Hermione maintained eye contact with Draco and started mumbling incoherently. Draco strained his ears to hear what she was saying.
"When you are scared, remember fear is in the mind. Believe in yourself and courage you will find." chanted Hermione repeatedly.
In minutes, Hermione felt Draco's tension miraculously ease up and his face began to relax.
Hermione remained clutching Draco's face and still forced him to listen to her not losing her eye contact.
"Draco, Hermione, you're up!" Jonah said in a rush forcing Draco and Hermione to look up, breaking their eye contact. He was ushering a crying Darla to the group.
"It's our turn." said Hermione reaching for Draco's hand and leading him to the tall glass tube.
Inside, the mice and rats were squirming.
Draco's grip tightened on Hermione's hand and she had to bite her tongue to refrain from shouting.
"Are you ready?" asked Jonah.
"In a minute." said Hermione. She turned to Draco and said "Believe." She squeezed Draco's hands and added "Just dive to the bottom and hand me the coins, I'll be the one to put them in the baskets. Go up for air if you need to. Stay as long as you can in the bottom."
Draco nodded.
Draco and Hermione climbed inside the tube and immediately found all kinds of bugs, worms, mice and rats squirming around their necks. Hermione clutched Draco's hand and whispered, "Believe."
Draco was dreadfully death white. He didn't move and he tried not to breathe. He occasionally closed his eyes but in seconds opened them again.
"In 3, 2, 1, GO!" yelled Jonah.
Draco immediately took a deep breath and plunged to the bottom of the tube. He took 5 coins at once and waited for Hermione to take the coins from him.
Hermione took coin number 1 and surfaced to drop it inside the basket. She again dived to retrieve the second coin and surfaced.
Draco looked at Hermione swimming frantically and out of the blue decided that he should help her out.
He took one coin and immediately surfaced. He felt the rats and the cockroaches on his face, neck and body and he quickly dropped the coin inside the basket.
Draco thought it wasn't as nasty as he believed. The creatures were not as disgusting as they looked. They did not bite at all. Sure they were stinky and they looked awful, but either than that, it was nothing much.
With courage bursting inside of Draco, he immediately plunged down again and retrieved 2 coins, he handed one to Hermione, who was putting her 6th coin inside the basket and then he surfaced dropping the coin into the basket.
He repeated it once more and, "Time!" called Jonah.
Hermione and Draco immediately got out of the tube. Draco wiped the worms clinging to his neck and took the towel offered to him by one of the cameramen.
"16.5 seconds." stated Jonah. "Not good enough to win,"
Draco dropped his eyes to the ground. If only he had moved faster and helped Hermione out.
"but .6 seconds enough to send Marty and Darla home! Congratulations!" continued Jonah.
Draco looked up as Hermione threw her arms around him. She was smiling happily and said "I knew you could do it."
Draco was shocked! .6 seconds? They were .6 seconds from losing? It was good he mustered the courage to do what he did.
Marty and Darla shook the 3 remaining couples' hands and walked away without any more words.
"Congratulation, Brian, Fiona, Karl, Tanya, Draco, Hermione." said Jonah facing 6 wet clueless faces. "You guys did it! Tomorrow will be the last competition, and whoever wins tomorrows stunt will continue for the quest of £1,000,000." Jonah clapped his hands and continued "Brian, Fiona, Congratulations for winning the £10,000, you deserve it!"
Hermione shot a look at Fiona who was smiling giddily.
"See you all tomorrow! Good luck and get a lot of rest!" Jonah said ushering the 6 people out of the abandoned house and to their limousines.
"That spell worked! I'm glad you did it. See, we weren't eliminated! It's amazing what .6 seconds can do." said Draco as the limousine breezed through the road toward the hotel.
"What spell?" asked Hermione looking at her fingers.
"The one you chanted. About fear and believing." said Draco as a matter-of-factly.
"There's no such thing." hurried Hermione looking at the window.
"Wha - ?, " Draco looked shocked.
"There's no such thing."
Draco scowled at Hermione. "You mean, you fooled me?
"Not exactly FOOLED. I just made you believe in yourself." reasoned Hermione, still looking out the window. "It seems to me because you relied too much on magic you lost faith in yourself. I just gave it back to you."
"I don't believe this!" Draco said frustrated. "I thought you wanted to be my friend? How can you be my friend when you go deceiving me?"
"Oh, please! We didn't lose, did we? I don't know what you're so aggravated about. You're over reacting." said Hermione looking Draco straight in the eye. "I didn't deceive you. I just helped you believe in yourself."
"I don't understand you." sighed Draco irritated. He crossed his arms on his chest and shook his head.
"Darling, it's a Gryffindor thing." Hermione winked at Draco and smiled sweetly. She settled in her seat, pleased that she threw Draco's comment about Slytherins back at his face.
Draco's jaw dropped suddenly. He scowled at Hermione but did nothing more but glare at her speechless until they reached the hotel.
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Please please do tell me what you think about this chapter coz in my opinion it is the LEAST entertaining of all the chapters I've written. But I do hope against hope that you haven't noticed. Thanks a million. I promise, the next chapter will be better.
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Darkening Sky - Thanks so much for your review! Appreciate it a lot! What do you think of this chapter? Draco's not so bad now is he? LOL...
Emma - Hi! Updated already! What do you think of this chapter? Hoped you like it! Thanks a lot for your review! Hope to hear from you soon!
Zalexiya - You really think that the owl thingie put Draco in character??? Thanks so so so much... Unfortunately, Draco is so out of character in this chapter again.. Don't hate me!!! LOL...
Callie - It's amazing how that idea crossed your mind... (I'll let you on a little secret... The one you were talking about crossed my mind but I gave up on it after a while... Ohhh!!! This is so exciting! I wonder what your reaction will be if you do read what I have thought up !) Yippeee!!! I'm thinking maybe in 2 or 3 chapters it will all be revealed!!! LOL.
Chrissy8887779999 - Thanks a lot for your review!! I'm so overwhelmed! Don't worry, they will be "freinldier" very very soon... Hope you liked this chapter!
Mrs-Sirius-Black - Hi!!! Sorry I took too long to review your fic. It took me a while to read it coz I wasn't able to go online at once. So when will you update? Thanks so much for your review!!! Hope you liked this chapter.
citcat299 - Hello!!! How do you like this new chapter? Please tell me what you think!!! Thanks so much for your last review! Appreciate it!
kawaii&crazy - Yipppeee!! I impressed you!!! I'm ecstatic!!! What do you think of this last chapter? Hope you liked it!! I'll try to impress you again next time. LOL.
RikkuFinalFantasy - I'm so happy to hear from you again!!! Wow! YOu were at Mexico!? Lucky!!! What did you do there? So what do you think of this chapter? Hoped you liked it!
Fairy Lights - Hello! Thanks for your review!!! I am so happy you liked it! What do you think of my latest chapter though? Hope to hear from you soon!!!