Chapter 10

Draco pulled his dragon-hide cloak closer to ward off the winter chill as he stood by the steps leading the Oak front doors of the Hogwarts castle. The students who had gone home for the holidays would be arriving any minute now, and Draco did not want to give Granger a chance to run from him again. He wanted to remind her exactly why she had run home for the holidays as soon as possible. He wanted to sneer at her cowardice the moment she got back into Hogwarts.

The front gate opened and the first of the returning students trickled in, walking briskly to get out of the cold and into the warmth of the castle. Draco spotted a tiny blue flame bobbing amidst the students, and smiled. Hermione had always carried a bluebell flame in a jar during winter since their first year in Hogwarts, and Draco knew that she had released the bluebell flame to warm as many of the students around her as possible. Typical, Granger. Typical

Draco stood up straighter, arranging his long limbs into a casual pose, leaning against the wall near the front doors. "Welcome back, everyone. I trust you all had satisfactory holidays," he drawled as soon as the student reached where he stood.

Some of the students responded politely, and most of the girls blushed at the sight of the seriously good-looking Slytherin. But Draco paid them no attention, his eyes and the rest of his senses focused on the Head Girl who was summoning the bluebell flame back into her jar, unaware that she was being watched. A wave of relief and excitement coursed through Draco at the first sight of her in weeks. She's back.

Draco quelled the urge to run down the steps to meet her, concentrating instead on maintaining the relaxed pose that was increasingly becoming dificult to hold. "Welcome back, Hermione. Have a good break?"

Hermione looked up at the sound of his voice. What's he doing here? I'm not ready to see him yet.

She felt a blush rushing up from the base of her neck the moment she met his familiar grey eyes and smirk. There was no stopping the images and sensations that rushed through her of the last time she had seen Malfoy. She cleared her throat before responding. "Thank you, Malfoy. Yes, I did have a good break."

She moved towards the front doors, intending to head straight for the Gryffindor Common Room to see her old friends. But he stopped her with a hand on her arm.

"Still calling me Malfoy, Hermione? I would have thought by now, after everything that has happened between us, we would be on first name basis," he said in a low voice.

"Old habits die hard," Hermione murmured, then stated, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to go to the Gryffindor dormitories to see my friends."

"Am I not your friend, too, Hermione? You haven't even asked me how my holidays were. Or have we been too close to be friends?" he replied teasingly, enjoying the deepening blush on Hermione's face. She was flushed just like that when we were in the library. Maybe I should provide her that fact.

She suddenly looked him straight in the eye, her face calm and determined. "Look, I don't want anything like that to happen again. I meant what I said, stay away from me. Please."

"Don't be such a spoilsport, Hermione. I still want to play, and don't try to deny that you enjoyed our little games, too. I was there, remember? The sounds you made prove to me that you liked playing with me just as much as I did," he responded, smirking at her.

Hermione pulled her arm away from his grasp gently and stepped away from him. She opened the door and said before entering, "I'm not denying anything, Malfoy. But I am saying that it will never happen again. You'll get over it."

As she walked briskly to the Gryffindor Common Room, she admitted a few truths to herself. While she had been able to figure out so many things during her vacation about who she was and what she wanted to be, she had not been able to fully address the Malfoy issue. She may have aborted the Pet Project, but apparently, Malfoy refused to let things be.

Really silly of you, Hermione. Whatever made you think that Malfoy would acquiese to your decision just because you wanted to put a stop to what had been going on between the two of you. Whatever made you think that a spoiled brat like him would easily give up something he wanted? Whatever made you assume that an arrogant person like him would let go of a challenge so quickly? You schemed to make him want you, now you're going to have to undo your brilliant work.

Draco was sitting in their Common Room couch just as Hermione had expected. Predictable, Malfoy, Hermione thought but was pleased that she could get what she had to do over and done with. The time she spent re-uniting with her Gryffindor friends helped Hermione calm down and think about how to deal with Malfoy and his utter brattiness. She was more than ready to begin undoing her work.

"Can we talk?" she asked.

"I thought you didn't want to play with me anymore, Hermione," he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yes, but that makes you want to play with me more, doesn't it," she stated calmly, taking the leather chair opposite the couch.

"Good call, Hermione," he smiled teasingly. I knew she wouldn't be able to keep away from me too long.

She sighed. This wasn't going to be easy. How could I make this spoiled, arrogant prat stop seeing me as a challenge he must conquer? The more I tell him that I don't want to play anymore, the more it eggs on his brattiness.

"OK, Malfoy. I would like you to listen to me and take what I say seriously. You can make as many snarky remarks as you want after I'm done. Deal?" she started.

"I like this commanding aspect of your personality, Hermione. Very sexy," he smiled, but she didn't smile back so he said, "Fine. I'll listen. Make it quick because you know I've never been good at keeping my wittiness to myself."

She shook her head at his words before starting, "You remember that scene after the Prefects' Meeting at the Hogwarts Express? When you told me off and let me know just how you really thought of me and my Head Girl badge."

He nodded. She held a hand up to stop him from trying to explain his behaviour that day. This wasn't about that.

"Well, I'll be honest with you, Malfoy. What you said hurt me more than anything else you've ever said to me before. No, don't say anything. Just listen... I was really angry at you for the gall and the arrogance that made you think that you could say those things to me. And at your cruelty for so casually telling me things that you knew would hurt me... But that's not the point here. Anyway, after that, I made a plan to get back at you for what you said and for everything that you had ever done to me and to my friends. Not to mention for everything that you represented as far as I was concerned."

"And what do I represent?" he asked, unable to keep his mouth shut anymore. He couldn't quite believe that he was having this conversation with Granger -- and she was so calm about it. No drama. No tears. No slapping. Maybe she's pretending to be calm so she can pull a surprise hex on me.

"You, Draco Malfoy, embody the things that would always work against me in the Wizarding World," Hermione stated. "You're Pure Blood, and I will always be Muggleborn. Your attitude towards me and other Muggleborns represents the prejudice against us, that no amount of accomplishments and achievements on our part would ever erradicate. I wanted to make an example out of you. I wanted to show and to prove for the last time that I was better than you, that despite your Pure Blood and your impeccable wizarding pedigree, I was better than you. I wanted to humiliate you and make you regret every cruel word and deed you have inflicted on me, my friends and other non-Pure Blood folk."

Draco stared at her, stunned at her candor and honesty. And her calmness.

She continued, "Anyway, for reasons that are pointless to get into anymore, I decided that the best way to destroy you was to make you want me. So I planned and plotted to get you to notice me, to get you to see me as a challenge, as something that you wanted. I knew that the moment you saw me as a challenge, as a trophy to be won, you would want me and that you would come after me. That was just the tip of the iceberg. My final plan for you was a public admission of your desire for me, followed by my absolute rejection of you. I wanted witnesses to your downfall. I wanted everyone to see you, the most Pure Blooded wizard in Hogwarts, fall on your knees to beg me, a MudBlood, to have you. I wanted to see the look of total humiliation and regret on your face when I reject you. I was setting you up for that."

"Why are you telling me all this now?" he asked hesitantly, still not sure where this conversation was leading to.

"Because I'm not going to go through with it. The project has been aborted. I don't want or need to see this project through. And I want you to realise that I meant it when I said that I no longer want to... be involved with you in the way that I was just before I left for France. For the record, Malfoy, I am not playing coy in the hopes of getting you to want me. I hope you believe that."

"Why did you decide to abort the project?" he asked.

"Because going through with it would destroy the things about myself that are more important than proving to you and to everyone like you that I am better than all of you put together. I'm done proving myself. If my achievements in the past seven years are not enough to prove myself worthy as a witch, then nothing will. I've decided to stop putting so much value in the opinions and attitudes of prejudiced people," Hermione responded.

She stood up and moved to head for her room. "That's all I wanted to say. Thank you for listening."

"Wait. There's one issue left," he said before she could leave.

She turned around to look at him. "Yes?"

"I still want you. You made me want you. And I still do. And you can't deny that you wanted me, too. What are we going to do about that?" he asked.

"You don't really want me, Malfoy," Hermione said, shaking her head. "You only thought you did because I made you think that I was a challenge. I can even tell you the exact moment when I laid down the challenge. Remember what I said to you at Scrivenshaft's? About Viktor? I know how your mind works, Malfoy. The moment I told you that no one in Hogwarts could top Viktor Krum, I knew it triggered your competitive and conceited nature. I knew you would have wanted to prove to yourself and everyone that you were better than Viktor. I knew you wanted me to eat my words."

"So basically, you played me these past few months," he stated, beginning to recall other instances when Hermione had challenged him deliberately. Steadily growing amazed at his stupidity and her cunning skill. I didn't even realise what she was doing.

"Yes," she nodded.

"Well done. You should have been sorted into Slytherin," he smirked. "Of course, a Slytherin would have accomplished the plan. I certainly wouldn't have quit half-way through, especially when it was progressing so successfully. I wouldn't have stopped."

Hermione gave him a small smile. "True. That's what makes us different, Malfoy. And to me, that's what makes me better than you."