Delusion Chapter 10

A/N #1: I'm so sorry! I have the worst writer's block ever for this story. I was almost going to put this on hiatus for another month but I just had to try to write. So here's the end result… without further ado, the next chapter.

The atmosphere was thick and sweaty as Draco and Hermione debated just how to get these photographs noticed. One couldn't just enlarge them and stick them up in the air for everyone to see. One had to be discreet, and then stick them up in the air for everyone to see. One had to be… subtle.

Now, subtlety was one of Draco's greatest accomplishments. Boy was he subtle. He subtly didn't pay attention in class. He subtly slipped out of Evil Duties, and he subtly slept with seventy five percent of the female population at Hogwarts. Yet he still didn't have a bad reputation… i.e. manwhore or slutboy or put outer. He was clean. Now if that wasn't subtlety he didn't know what was.

Now how to subtly distribute pictures should be easy enough. Unfortunately, it seemed apparent that Hermione did not feel the same way. She didn't seem… comfortable with the situation. Actually that was putting it rather lightly. She was bordering on hysterical.

"I can't do this," she whispered frantically. "It was bad enough telling Colin to give me his camera, but potentially ruining Harry and Pansy's lives? I can't! I can't!"

Draco hadn't considered this 'potentially ruining Harry and Pansy's lives' aspect. Hmm, an extra perk.

"Yes, you can," he said firmly, gripping her shoulder and steering her away into a corner. "You can do it! Would you rather Potter screw Pansy and then get screwed himself, or that Potter burst out crying in front of everyone and publicly humiliate himself and be teased for, oh, the rest of the year? Which of these is the greater evil?"

Hermione began to panic.

Maybe his pep talk wasn't as convincing as he'd thought. He'd have to work on that.

"Draco, I can't do this," she said, turning away from him. "I'm out."

Damn it! What was it with women, anyway? All his beautiful plans slowly dying in front of him because of two very inconsistent women! First Pansy had to go and say "Well, look at me, I love Potter, happy, non-evil, Potter! Yay!" and now Hermione was saying, "Hmm I'd like to ruin your plans further by not participating even though I've come this bloody far and done some bad things anyway."

Wait. That seemed like a good strategy.

"Hermione," he coaxed slowly, "now, say Potter found out about all of this."

"Who cares?" she said. "I'm backing out!"

"Ah-ah-ah," he corrected happily (how he loved when he was right!). "You've already done so much awful stuff that Potter would never forgive you anyway. Might as well complete the deed and save him from the evil grip of Pansy Parkinson."

Hermione considered.

Draco continued. "And anyway, if you back out, I just might tell the entire school of your involvement in this and your beautiful reputation would be torn to shreds and set on fire."

Apparently "reputation" seemed to be the right word. He should've mentioned "studies" and "Dumbledore" earlier and she'd have agreed no matter what he said.

"Okay," she finally said. "I can't have my reputation being ruined. You paint such a horrid picture."

"It's a talent," he replied snarkily. "Now let's get to work."

**************

Hermione wasn't exactly pleased when she heard Draco's plan, but after all, she did want to bravely save Harry from the evil clutches of Pansy Parkinson. She fingered the picture of Draco and Pansy before sighing in resolution and moving stealthily among the crowd.

Ignoring her conscience she let the picture flutter to the ground, making sure that the person that needed to see the picture was around. All right, there it went…aha!

Subject had seen picture. Plan was in action and had been executed rather well, if she did say so herself.

Lavender Brown was grinning at the photograph like it was a dream come true. Everyone knew that Harry and Pansy had come to the dance together, and that right there was an interesting piece of gossip. Lavender Brown was so skilled at gossip you'd think every word out of her mouth had come straight from a tabloid. She was good.

But the best thing about Lavvy Brown? It wasn't the fact that she could gossip better than Rita Skeeter herself. Oh, no. Lavender was discreet. Lavender was brilliantly discreet.

Hermione wondered how exactly Draco knew that Lavender Brown was discreet about gossiping. She also wondered how Draco knew that it was better to not say very much. That boy truly had his ways. He was God of the Prankster indeed.

Two minutes later, Hermione saw her plan work absolutely marvelously. Lavender Brown had taken the photograph straight to Harry Potter.

Harry Potter was bright red and he exited the Great Hall faster than his Firebolt, even, it seemed. It was definitely a noticeable exit. Definitely.

Except it was rubbing Hermione the wrong way.

A sensation she had tried to avoid had made its way back to her…

That horrid feeling known as guilt had spread to her. Oh, dear.

******************

Draco strolled most imperceptibly past Parvati Patil, who was currently chatting up Weasel, and dropped the photograph by her so inconspicuously he was almost afraid she wouldn't notice.

He needn't have worried. Parvati reached down and immediately saw a very happy picture of Harry and Hermione. Parvati, student of The Great Lavender Brown, Gossiper Extraordinaire herself, knew exactly what to do. Draco could only sit back and enjoy the show as Parvati abandoned Ron and made her way over to Pansy, thrusting the picture right into her face.

Pansy was mad, no doubt. Pansy grabbed the picture and ripped it in half, ha, ha… oh and were those tears? Running out of the room, yeah…attracting everyone's attention…it was perfect, absolutely perfectly executed…they were so over…

This was not good.

He was not supposed to be half-enjoying and half-worrying. He was supposed to completely and blissfully enjoy every moment of their agony. He was evil, bad, terrible, and…unfortunately, feeling rather guilty at the moment.

Damn it!  He was not supposed to have a conscience! When had that thing popped up?

And to make matters worse, a very doleful and sheepish looking Hermione Granger was making her way over to him.

"Draco!" she whined. "We should not have done that. We…might have killed true love!"

Draco's mouth dropped open. Women! They could make up any excuse to be good. "True love?" he sputtered. "What's that got to do with anything?"

Hermione waved him off. "Just…you shut up. It's your entire bloody fault! You…tricked me! I shouldn't have listened, damn it, now I'm the one responsible for Harry's distress!"

"If it makes you feel any better I rather enjoyed it," he said honestly. It had been fun seeing Granger go to extreme lengths such as working with him.

"Shut up!" she screeched, and whacked him on the side of the head. Well, old Hermione was back.

"What was that for?" he roared, deciding that it was time to show his power too.

"You manipulated me, and now you're laughing at me! The nerve! I loathe you Draco Malfoy!"

Perhaps it was the fact that she'd screamed the last bit, or perhaps it was because of the sheer intensity of the statement, that everyone turned their attentions from the doorway and looked at her with mild curiosity.

Draco could almost hear them questioning, "But hasn't she always hated them? Why is she telling him that?" Come to think of it, why was she telling him that? He knew she hated him!

"Keep your voice down," he bit out as softly as possible, "and follow me. We have a lot of talking to do. Especially since you've just totally sent the wrong image to every fucking person in this school."

Hermione looked around with a bewildered expression on her face. "What?" she asked, suddenly mellow after her bout of excessive rage.

Draco beckoned behind him and swam through the hordes of people who had resumed muttering among themselves ("did you see Parkinson leave? What the fuck was up with her and Potter? And, oh…were Malfoy and Hermione Granger doing something together! She totally just broke up with him!" "I know, I would never have thought they'd get together… "Yeah! Talk about surprise of the year!"). It was truly disastrous what Hermione had done and Draco knew it, with his observation skills and somehow disturbing excessive knowledge on nearly every student at Hogwarts.

After they'd left the Great Hall, they looked around for an empty corridor, finally noticing one near the Slytherin dormitories. Hermione was sniffling now; obviously her conscience was a lot more active than Draco's was.

Maybe he could corrupt that, too. Seventh year really was something special.

**************

Hermione was distressed with the way that the night had turned out. It had really been a bummer. She knew Lavender and Parvati shouldn't have requested extra dances…how stupid was that? Who danced anyway! It had all been one big catastrophe and she was right at the center of the torture.

As soon as they were alone Draco turned to her with an angry expression on his face. "Why in bloody Merlin did you have to say you "loathed me" in front of everyone?" he exclaimed desperately.

Hermione still didn't understand the magnitude of the situation. "Why not?" she growled back. "It's not like I don't. What, you think I fancied you or something? Why would I do a stupid thing like that?"

He rolled his eyes. "You idiot," he snarled. "It looked exactly like you'd fancied me at some point or the other. Honestly! I swear if I were a spectator I'd have thought the two of us were, Merlin forbid, doing something other than constantly loathing each other."

"I don't get it," she said slowly. Was he crazy, or was he correct? She seriously hoped he was crazy; not only was that more believable it was also more relieving.

"Hermione," he pleaded, "you're worse than Longbottom! Obviously it looked to the whole school like you'd just broken up with me!"

Her jaw dropped open as she finally understood the effect such words and the way they'd been acting all evening would have on fellow students with young impressionable minds. Shit. Double, triple, quadruple shit! This was truly awful!

"I can't believe this," she said desperately. "When did it go wrong?"

He considered. "I don't know. When we put our hearts into this stupid thing, I guess." She knew he was right. Why she'd invoked he conscience was a mystery; why couldn't it just lay dormant throughout the whole fiasco?

"I should never have gotten involved," she sighed.

He shrugged. "What's done is done. What's the next step going to be?" he asked forlornly.

"What can we do? It's done, isn't it? It's over, I'm sure, judging by their expressions."

He agreed. "You're right. There's nothing left."

"Well, then," she said, and somehow she was almost sorry to say the words, "It was…not that bad with you… not as bad as I'd expected, of course. Almost kind of fun," she finished up honestly. No point in lying now.

He laughed devilishly. "Explore it more often," he advised. "You'll like living on the wilder side of the books, Granger."

"See you later, Mr. Malfoy," she replied half-heartedly. "But do remember, I still don't like you."

"Ditto."

*****************

Pansy Parkinson was walking wearily and dejectedly back to her dormitories, when she caught wisps of conversation just near the Slytherin Tower entrance. Even though she was not in the mood and very downcast herself, her Slytherin nature took over and she stood where she was, controlling her breaths and making sure she made naught a sound. Now, to listen…

"…you've just broken up with me!" someone was saying. That sounded like Draco! Draco had a girlfriend? Pansy nearly wet her pants with excitement and anticipation for the next voice.

"I can't believe this…where did it go wrong?" That was…oh, no, it couldn't be…but it was…Hermione Granger, that smart and stuck-up Gryffindor? Granger? But, how? Pansy nearly sputtered but she had to keep listening. Every word they said confirmed her suspicions.

"I don't know, when we put our hearts into this stupid thing, I guess…" What? Did he love her? Draco didn't even know how to love! What? What stupid thing?

"I should never have gotten involved..." all the way to "it was kind of fun…"

They were sleeping together and eventually put their hearts into it. Pansy knew it. Oh, that was absolutely a riot. When had this awful thing happened? What had they been doing? Did this have anything to do with the odd way Draco had been acting lately? It must. It must.

Wait till Harry heard about this.

A/N: It was short, but please tell me it wasn't as miserable as I think it was. It took me a while to write, and now I kind of know what direction I'm going in, but I'd really appreciate some feedback. Oh, and thank you so much for the fantastic reviews! One short of two hundred's amazing! You guys are the best, and please keep it up.