More Than One Mistake

Hermione sat in the common room trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. Suddenly, the Hufflepuff named Samantha came down the stairs covered in Draco's sheets. She eyed Hermione guardedly when she spotted her.

"Leaving so soon?" Hermione asked.

"He kicked me out." Hermione didn't reply. "Is there anywhere I can put my clothes back on?" Samantha asked.

Hermione pointed. "Behind the bookshelf."

"Thanks."

In a minute, Samantha had dressed. She scurried out of the dorm as quickly as she could.

Draco waited five minutes after the Hufflepuff left his room. He walked downstairs to retrieve his sheets and did not realize that Hermione was there.

"Nice to know you haven't stopped shagging for me," she said. Draco looked up at the sound of her voice.

"Well, why should I?" he said coolly.

"I seem to remember you saying that you wouldn't."

"I said I wouldn't shag you. And I haven't."

"That still didn't stop you from trying."

"That is entirely your fault—"

"How the hell is it my fault!" she yelled.

"Why'd you kiss me back?" he said accusingly.

"Why'd you kiss me in the first place? Did you think it was ok? Did you think that meant I wanted to 'shag'?"

"You didn't do anything to stop me!"

"I didn't think you'd stick you hand down my knickers! Gods, it really is all you think about! And then when you didn't get it from me, you go somewhere else."

"That's not how it was."

"Don't lie," she said, waving her hands in exasperation. Then she stopped, because she felt ridiculous. Draco was holding the sheets in his hands and giving her a deceivingly innocent look. "You know what, go ahead. Go ahead and say that sex isn't all you care about."

"It's not."

"Yeah right! Then why were you with someone minutes after you couldn't shag me?"

"It was because of you!"

"Don't blame you horniness on me."

"No. You don't understand. It's because you are in my head," he pointed to it, "because I couldn't stop thinking about you."

"Wow. That's sweet," she said sarcastically. "So you thought you'd go shag elsewhere so you wouldn't have to think of shagging me. That makes it so much better."

"You know what, Hermione? You can't keep doing this. I told you the offer still stood. And you didn't stop me. So what did you expect me to think?"

"I expected you to remember that I didn't want to do that."

"Then stop playing games. It's not even about the sex anymore. This is about us. I thought you wanted me like I wanted you, but I guess that's not true."

"And how would that be, Draco? Naked? Wet? With my legs spread so that you can—"

"No. That's not what I mean—"

"I know exactly what you mean, and I don't want to hear it. Don't think you can sweet-talk your way into my underwear. Maybe some parts of you aren't completely rotten, but you're still not very much different from the person you pretend to be. And definitely don't think for one second that you're going to get any lies past me."

Hermione took a deep breath. "I'm not stupid, Draco. I know exactly how you work. Do you not realize that every female here, including me, knows every single dirty detail of your sex life and how you operate with women? I know you're just trying to add me to your list of conquests. And it's not going to happen. So save it for someone who actually wants to fuck." She spat the last words as she stood and glared at him. "You disgust me." Hermione walked over to her staircase and ascended without another glance back at Draco.

'I can't believe him' was the first thought on Hermione's mind when she woke up the next morning. I really can't believe him. Hermione groaned and rolled out of bed, then walked into the bathroom. She vaguely imagined that Draco on the other side of the wall, and hurried in showering and leaving the bathroom. Hermione mumbled to herself for the duration of her shower. The warm water had done nothing in the way of calming her down, and now she was going to have to go to class and see the exact cause of her annoyance.

She hoped that Draco wasn't going to be lingering anywhere around the dorm when she left. Luckily for Hermione, it seemed that he was already gone when she entered the common room. She left the dorm and went to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"Hey Hermione," Ginny said when Hermione sat down. "What's wrong?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, you don't look too alive right now. Did you just not get enough sleep?"

"Probably," Hermione said. "But that's not all of it. You will not believe what happened yesterday…I swear, I don't think I can take living with Draco for very much longer."

"Did he do something to you?" Ron asked.

"Not really…I just…he's just unbearable. And psychopathic."

"Are you sure he didn't do anything?" Harry asked.

"Nothing out of the ordinary…" Hermione turned back to her food and tried not to let her eyes wander over to the Slytherin table.

"Hermione, you're a really bad liar," Ginny whispered.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, because they're guys they're clueless, but I know something happened."

"I don't think it's a good idea to discuss it here…"

"We won't. Just tell me really quickly. What did Draco do?"

Hermione sighed. "A lot of things." She looked around and lowered her voice. "So we kind of…you know…again."

"Last time you didn't even actually end up shagging."

"And we didn't this time either. But he tried, and then got really mad when I stopped him. I went to go take a shower, and I came back out, and he was having sex with another girl!"

"What! In the common room?"

"Nope. They were making so much noise that I went to check his room, and saw them…"

"You caught them? And how did that go?" Ginny said in an amused voice.

"Not funny. I left, and then apparently he kicked her out and came down the common room while I was still there. Then he tried to feed me some bullcrap about having done it because of me." Hermione looked at her watch and sighed again. "Well, we've got to go to class now. Come on Ron, Harry." She stood, then bent over and whispered in Ginny's ear. "I'll tell you more later."

The trio walked to Potions and took their respective seats around the room. Hermione tried not to look at Draco as the class began, and stood up to get the ingredients as soon as they appeared on the board. She sat back down and added them to the cauldron without any help from him. Hermione was about to place the ladle inside when Draco took it from her hands.

"I think I can do that," he said placing the ladle in the cauldron. "This does count as my grade too."

Hermione fought the urge to tell him off and instead ignored him. After a while, she dared a peek at his face. He was stirring with a very intense glare of which the potion was the unfortunate recipient, and seemed to be oblivious to everything else that was going on around him.

Why is he angry? Hermione thought. He's not the one who was violated multiple times last night…

After a while, Draco removed the ladle, stood up, and looked inside the cauldron. He seemed to be satisfied with how the potion looked, and sat back down. The two sat in silence until Snape walked past their cauldron.

"You two are done?" the professor asked. He looked inside their cauldron. "Then what is wrong with your potion?"

"Perhaps the ingredients, professor? Maybe Miss Granger missed a few," Draco said.

"Did you miss an ingredient, Miss Granger?" Professor Snape asked.

"I don't think so, professor. Maybe," she suggested, "it was stirred for too long."

"Then why didn't you stop after the five minutes instructed?"

"Oh, I wasn't stirring, professor."

Snape eyed Draco in surprise. "Mister Malfoy?"

"Well, it's possible that I did go over the limit…" Draco said.

The professor frowned, and pulled a vial of clear liquid out of his robes. He opened it and poured one drop into their cauldron. "Start over," he said, "and this time, stir for only five minutes."

Snape walked away from their bench and stood in front of his desk. "Do my instructions mean nothing to you?" he said to the class. "Do you know how many fatal accidents have occurred because potion instructions have not been followed to the letter? Do not stir for a longer or shorter period of time than instructed. Ever." Snape walked back over to the two Heads. "Do not think that you will always have someone to reverse the mistakes you've made. This is one time, and one time only. Do you understand?"

"Yes, professor," the pair said, and Snape walked away.

Hermione waited a moment before she spoke. "How dare you try and get me in trouble for your mistake!" she whispered angrily.

Draco finally turned to face her. "I wasn't trying to blame you. You just didn't seem like you were sure of yourself when you were putting the ingredients into the cauldron…"

"Whatever, you arse. Try that again and I'll hex you—" Hermione began, then the bell rang.

"Everyone hand in your potions now!" the professor said.

"I'll do it," Hermione said. She took a vial and placed a sample of their potion inside, then walked quickly up to Snape's desk, then left the classroom as soon as she placed the potion on his desk.