Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any related thematic elements by JK Rowling.
I'll Never Tell
Malfoy could not stop laughing long enough for Hermione to finish talking.
"What's so funny?" she demanded. "It's a good idea! It's worked loads of times in books I've read."
"That…is the…stupidest…thing…I've…ever…"
"It's NOT!"
"No…seriously, that's…wow, how'd you ever come up with…?" Malfoy was clutching a hand to his chest.
"Shut up!" Hermione defended. "Do you have any other ideas? I mean…what, do you want to just sit around and let people think that…that…no, I think that this is a very good idea." She resumed her superior stature and put her hands on her hips.
"It's not a big deal!" Malfoy said. "Can't you just tell people that they're all being stupid? Really, if people are thick enough to not believe somebody like Hermione Granger then there's something wrong with them."
"Did you see anybody listen to Harry last year? Once the Daily Prophet started saying all that rubbish about him nobody even gave him the time of day! He had to do something about it, not just sit around and beg people to stop reading the paper!"
"What the hell are you talking—"
"The POINT," Hermione interrupted, "is that in this school, you have to take action."
"Now normally, I would be impressed," Malfoy said coolly. "But…no. Stage a fight? That has got to be more embarrassing than any rumor. Malfoys do NOT stage fights. Our wit comes naturally, we can't plan our genius, it's not the way we—"
"Malfoy!" Hermione yelled.
"I'm not going to write it."
"I wasn't going to ask you to."
"But you'll make me lose. Malfoys do not lose, either. Ever."
Hermione was getting exceptionally fed up. "Cut it out! I'm serious. For once, step off your high horse and help me out, here!"
The blonde eyebrows on Malfoy's forehead flew up and disappeared behind the fringe of equally blonde hair that had fallen out over his face. "You are scary, sometimes," he said. "Has anyone ever told you that?"
"Er…no," said Hermione quickly. "Why do you ask?"
"No reason… No reason at all."
Malfoy restrained himself from sarcasm as long as he possibly could while Hermione began to plot their fight. This allotted to a grand total of five minutes. "Oh, yes," he said. "And we advertise our fight, put up big great sparkling posters in the Great Hall—'Spectacularly Handsome Slytherin versus Girl Who Hates Really Really Hates Him,' It'll knock their socks off, and we can…no, that might hurt…"
Hermione picked up one of her books and whacked him over the head with it. "Shut up!" she yelled.
"I'm injured…" Draco said. "No, really, this has got to be this most ridiculous idea you've ever had."
"At times," Hermione said determinedly, "it's good to try things differently."
"Not this!" whined Draco.
"YES, this! This will work! You just wait, I'll finish plotting it all out and I'll owl it to you. We'll have time to go over it tomorrow in our planning session. Thursday, remember?"
Draco nodded resolutely. "You're barmy, Granger. See you tomorrow."
"You'd better see me tomorrow," she said. "I'll leave first." Picking up her bag, she silently slipped out the door.
The next morning, Draco was sitting at the Slytherin table with Crabbe and Goyle when a tiny box fell out of the air and on his head. "Ouch," he said. "What the hell…?"
He grabbed the box off the floor where it had fallen, and noticed the letter attached to it. "You've got to be kidding me," he said to himself. He glanced up at the Gryffindor table and saw Hermione, who was sitting next to Neville Longbottom and reading the Daily Prophet.
"What's that?" Goyle asked stupidly.
"Dynamite," said Draco sarcastically. "I'm going to blow up the school."
Both Crabbe and Goyle tensed up immediately and Draco could've sworn they inched away from him on the bench. He rolled his eyes and opened the letter.
Draco, it read. Please read through this and tell me what you think later. No…actually, don't tell me what you think, just read through it and suck it up. It will work.
Draco scanned the letter, which consisted of various lines and commands. He was disgusted. "She made me lose!" he said indignantly. "She can't make me lose!"
"Are you gonna need help?" grunted Goyle.
"Need help? With what?" Draco demanded.
"With the," he pointed to the box, "you know," he lowered his voice, "dynamite."
"No, actually," Draco said. "Save yourself, go drown in the lake first."
Draco stood up from the table, suddenly not hungry from the foreboding idea of humiliation weighing heavily on his mind. Hermione noticed this from above her paper, and frowned. She followed him with her eyes as he left the Great Hall, and got up soon afterward to proceed to her classes for the day.
It was a very dull and boring morning, followed by a rigorous afternoon in which she was assigned positively sickening amounts of homework. Hermione rushed to the library as soon as her classes were over to get a head start on her essay for Advanced Potions, and she didn't even notice when Draco had come in and slipped into a chair opposite her.
"Do you ever take a break?" he asked, announcing his presence.
"Oh, hi," she answered, not answering his question. "You read my letter, right?"
"I wish that I hadn't."
"Don't be silly."
"Oh, right, because we all know that I'm the one here who's being silly. How could I have forgotten…?"
Rather than retorting, Hermione chose to end the argument by laughing, which always seemed to do him in. But not this time.
"You made me lose," Draco continued.
"I know that," said Hermione calmly.
"Perhaps you didn't hear me correctly the first time I said it. Malfoys do not lose."
"And when has that ever been true? I don't think I've seen you win a fight with Harry once!"
"Granger did I ask you to contradict me?" Malfoy asked very quickly, ending the conversation immediately, because Hermione shook her head no, pursing her lips disapprovingly and looking back down at her work.
"We need to work quickly," she said.
A/N: Sorry for the long wait and the short-ness of this chapter. I've been pretty busy lately, and plotbunnies have been attacking. But anyway, be sure to review on your way out! Thanks