Ludus: Love focused on fun, and sometimes also on conquest, with no strings attached.

Chapter 1: Making a new friend.

Draco Malfoy wasn't happy.

He was going to the library. He had to do his homework with a mudblood. The day would be a waste of time. He would spend all the day explaining potions to her, and finally he would do all the work himself.

He was wearing a black t-shirt and dark green pants. The purebloods never knew how similar the muggle and wizard's clothes were in everything but robes.

Draco opened the door and came into the library. Hermione Granger was already here, sat at a table with almost ten books. She was using the shirt, skirt, and toe of the Hogwarts uniform. 'My life is so unfair'

'Let's finish this'

'I have been waiting for you,' said Granger.

'I'm only two minutes late,' replied Malfoy, looking at his watch.

'I was here for ten minutes. I reserved the table and I took the books. I think they will help in our work. She pointed at the books.

'We don't need all these books, it's a short work about the properties of the wolfbane', explained Draco.

'But if we need some particular information, we have all these books to read'

Draco sat down in front of the mudblood, and they began their work.

After three hours of work, they finished. 'Write three potions that have wolfbane as their base.' Draco read the last point in their work. He was going to open a book, but Hermione beat him to the punch.

'Anti-werewolves bites potion, Wolfsbane potion, and Wideye potion'

Draco saw that she wasn't even reading the book.

'How do you know that?' asked Draco.

'It was in 'One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi'' by Phyllida Spore and 'Magical Drafts and Potions' by Arsenius Jigger. You obviously read the books before Hogwarts. Don't you?' said she with just a little of what he thought was condescension.

'I read the books and I memorized the first twenty potions,' said Draco, as a subtle fight with me mudblood 'But how do you remember what potions have a base of wolfbane?' and Draco has another question 'What the heck is the base of a potion'?

'I memorized the potions like you, though, I memorized the first fifty potions. Twenty is still a good number, I think, then I only used the logic to know what are their bases'

'Logic?'

'Yeah, you know? As I know what their ingredients are, I can only think what are the vegetable components with the neutraler… more neutral?... whatever, Ppm and then I have the base.

'What is Ppm?' said Draco.

'Potion potential magic. It was in the book, page two thousand thi…'

'Yeah, now I remember', interrupted Malfoy, taking note to read that part of the book. Then he tried to prove something. 'Just for curiosity, what is potion number thirty-nine?'

'Pompion Potion' replied Granger.

'Definitely she has a photographic memory.'

And then Malfoy had an idea that would make his dad proud and would scandalize his mother; "had his own talking doer of homework' and who cares if it is a mudblood, obviously he could make Crabbe and Goyle pressure her to do it, but it would cause problems with the Gryffindor house-master, but he's a Slytherin, he could convince her to do it. Like his father always said, 'If you can't beat them, make them work for you'.

'And you read all the other books?' asked Malfoy, friendly.

'Only one time. I didn't have enough time to re-read them all,' replied Granger.

'Wonderful.' he said with an innocent smile on his face, but in his mind he was laughing maniacally, like a villain in a comic book. 'Well we finished our work… so... bye'

Hermione Granger loved the books. She could read for hours without any problems. That's why she liked the library so much. She also liked the calm and silence of being alone with a book.

'Hey, Granger,' said a voice, Malfoy walked to her side. He was smiling innocently. 'Where are you going?'

Hermione barely knew Malfoy, she knew that he was always fighting with Harry Potter and being mean to Neville, but at least he was polite enough the day before that for their project.

'I'm going to the library,' she responded 'why?'

'Great,' he smiled 'I'm going here too, I'm going with you'

'Okay…' she said hesitantly. What did Malfoy want?

Hermione thought he was being strangely friendly during their trip to the library, asking her if she liked quidditch (she hadn't seen a match yet) and what her favorite dessert was (Pumpkin Pie). Sometimes he revealed something about himself before the question ('My family manor is in Wiltshire. Where do you live?')

They came into the library.

Hermione took 'Hogwarts: A History' Draco took a fantasy book called 'The Merlin Heir' with a young boy punching an old wizard in the face, the spit from the mouth of the old man floated in the image in slow motion.

'It's pretty good,' he whispered, 'Have you ever read this?'

'No, what's about?' She asked.

'It's about a wizard that discovered that he was manipulated all his life for his evil headmaster (he's secretly controlling the country),' he pointed to the old wizard, who resembled Dumbledore 'But this guy, Adrian, has not problem in fight back because he is the heir of Merlin and the founders of Hogwarts'

'It sounds… good,' She lied 'I will remember to read this'

'What kinds of books do you like?' he asked.

'I don't know… I think my favorites are story books,' she responded.

He let her read in silence, but when she finished, he left the library too, and he continued with the questions. Why was he so interested in knowing things about her?

Later on that day Draco prepared something absolutely hilarious. Everybody knows that funny people attract a lot of friends. He looked at Longbottom with is remembrall shining in red. He was forgetting something and he didn't realize what.

'Your friend said to me you wanna see me'

Granger and Crabbe suddenly appeared. 'Good timing' He thought when he saw Longbotton remembered what he was forgetting.

'I want you to see this' Longbottom first checked in his pockets, and after that he was looking around. 'I took his toad when he was distracted. He didn't realize until now.' Draco laughed, seeing Longbotton looking into the lake.

'Where is his frog?' Granger asked, she didn't look very amused.

'Just here' Draco said, taking Longbotton's toad out of his pocket, the toad croacked. 'Only look at him is so worried'

'Trevor!' Neville exclaimed, going to them 'Give me him back, please' Neville said.

'Why should I?' He responded 'You're always losing him, maybe I should keep it' he tried to grab the toad, but Draco moved his hand, making Longbotton lose his balance and almost fall. He tried again, but he stopped when Crabbe and Goyle groaned, Longbotton's terrified face was gold.

He turned to see Granger's face.

She wasn't laughing at all, she looked at him with anger. 'Give him his toad, Malfoy!' she ordered.

Draco, without thinking, gave the toad to his owner, 'I didn't want it anyways.'

'I don't know what is wrong with you, Malfoy,' said Granger, annoyed.

'I was only trying to have some fun,' Draco said calmly.

Granger didn't like that response. 'Have some fun',' she said incredulously. 'How is it funny to harass a boy that never did anything to you?!' she asked.

Put it like that it sounded a bit pathetic. Making fun of Longbottom wasn't a challenge and he only did that because he could. He considered himself more intelligent than that. 'Okay, I thought it would be funny, sorry Neville.'

Longbottom's face looked like Draco had suddenly grown another face. 'Okay…'

Crabbe and Goyle looked as surprised as Longbotton.

'Well,' said Malfoy to Hermione, she was more calmed 'That was I wanted to show you, I didn't realize it wasn't funny, sorry for that' He left the place with Crabbe and Goyle

Later in his life, Draco would notice that those were the first times he apologized to somebody in all his life.

That didn't work, but he wasn't giving up, it would be accepted that he was defeated. He decided to make Hermione Granger think she was his friend.

But. How?

Malfoy was hit with a flash of inspiration. It was so obvious, risky, but it's not like he was losing something anyway.

'So, Granger…' Draco said, the two of them were alone in a hallway at Hogwarts, he knew Crabbe and Goyle made him look menacing and he didn't want it 'Do you wanna be my friend?'

She looked at him for a few moments and said 'Sure, but please, call me Hermione'

'Only if you call me Draco' the plan was completed.

Well, I hope you liked this chapter, let me know your opinions in the reviews.

I'm planning to subvert the basic tropes of Dramione, but I need to establish them first, so the first year will look like a standard story of this pairing with some difference that will become bigger with each year (for the butterfly effect or for be an Au). The romance will begin in the 4th year.

Draco is a bit OOC because… well, it's necessary to this kind of stories make him nicer, but don't worry he will still be a little sh*t for a long time, yay[?]. He was pretty funny to write, he thinks he's a manipulative mastermind but he's... an 11-year-old kid.

Not bashing.

Edits: 1/11/2022 I fixed some grammar errors