Chapter Four
When Draco entered the common room, Hermione was reclining on her couch by the put out fire. She had a book propped up on her chest but looked up from it when she heard him enter. She closed it and stood up, preparing to head to her dormitory.
"No need to leave on my account, Granger," he called as she made a move toward her door. She stopped just as her hand landed on her doorknob.
"Oh, it's not you, Malfoy," she stated, looking back at him, "it's the stink you bring in with you."
"I don't think it's me," Draco drawled. "Perhaps it's the stench that wafts around you from Weasel or Potty. Even Crabbe and Goyle have smelt better than them."
"Don't…" she murmured.
"What, mudblood, I didn't quite hear you," shouted Draco.
"I said," Hermione began, taking a deep breath and screaming the rest of the sentence so that he could hear her, "'Don't compare you "friends", and I do use that term very loosely, to mine because they will never be the same!" She entered her room and slammed the door, sliding to floor in silent giggles.
Draco continued to stand in the common room with a rather befuddled look on his face, which soon turned to rage. He shrugged off her comment, though, and started for the lavatory, not bothering to lock the door. He stripped down to his skivvies and started filling the bathtub with hat water. After the bath was full with the right amount of water, he took off his knickers and jumped into the water. He simply lounged in it for a long time and then quickly washed his hair and body. When he was clean and his usually pale skin was slightly pink and raw, he reclined against the side of the pool on the edge of sleep.
He was dozing in and out of sleep when he heard a door open. He pried his eyes open and looked around. When everything came into focus, he noticed that the person who had entered had come through his door and it was…
"Desdemona!" yelped Draco. She, she being Desdemona Nightingale, was giving him a sly look. She was standing in only her bra and knickers, her black hair streaming down her body. "How did you get in the common room?"
"I followed you and memorized the password," she said in a high-pitch girl voice that let him know she wanted something.
"Is there something I can do for you?" Draco drawled after regaining his composure.
"Oh, well yes, Draco, there is," she rasped seductively, unclipping her bra and letting it drop to the floor. "I was just wondering if—"
"Malfoy, who are you talking—" Hermione had entered, without knocking or anything, and stood, wide-eyed in the doorway. "—to?"
"Well, hello Miss Granger," Desdemona said as if nothing was wrong with the image of her standing in her panties before a naked Draco.
"Bloody hell!" yelled Hermione, covering her eyes with her hand and retreating back into her room and slamming the door. She buried her face in her hands and slumped onto the floor. "Bloody hell, bloody hell, bloody hell, bloody hell, bloody hell, bloody hell!" Hermione cried in repetition. Her face was bright red and her heart was pounding.
Draco pushed himself out of the tub and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around himself and heading for his room.
"Where are you going now?" Desdemona asked, watching him with narrowed eyes.
"I'm completely turned off now," he lied, closing his door and leaving Desdemona alone in the bathroom, almost completely naked. She huffed and left the common room after putting her bra back on.
Draco dropped himself onto the bed and rolled over onto his stomach. The truth was that he wasn't turned off, not in any sense. If anything, he was even more turned on that Granger had caught him. He stifled a groan in one of his pillows and then crawled off his bed and went over to his dresser and pulled out a pair of black boxers. He pulled them on and then went back over to his bed. Just as he was relaxing, the door to his room from the lavatory opened.
"Look, Desdemona," he snapped, rolling over, "I told you I'm not in the---mmmph!" Suddenly his clothes, which he had left by the bathtub, came flying into his face.
"My name is not Desdemona!" screeched Hermione, retreating back into the bathroom and slamming the door. "Stupid, slimy git!"
Draco groaned even louder and threw his dirty clothing to the floor. He flicked his wand and the lights turned out, leaving him in the dark. He had been staring up at the ceiling for a long time, what he guessed to be about three hours, when finally he rolled off his bed, grabbed a book, and started out of his room. When he was in the common room, he stopped at the sight of a pair of smooth legs dangling over the side of the crimson couch and once again, Draco jumped to conclusions.
"Desdemona, I told you already that I—" but he stopped very suddenly when a bushy brown haired head popped up and was obviously attached to the body that the perfect legs were sprouting from. Two brown eyes glared at him and his eyebrows raised.
"I am NOT Desdemona, as much as I am sure you would love me to be! She is, after all, your newest sex toy, right?" Hermione hissed, snapping her book shut and dropping it to the floor with a 'thunk.' "Must not take very long to decide if you want something and its must takes even less time to get it. You are a lecherous, self-absorb, stupid, slimy git!" Hermione stopped to take a breath and then opened her mouth to continue but Draco interjected.
"I didn't have sex with her!" yelled Draco. "And I don't understand why you're getting so upset!" He stopped suddenly and smirked slyly. "Unless, of course, you're jealous, Granger!"
"I am not jealous! What you were doing in there was, was, was completely disgusting, Malfoy!"
"Would you like to see EXACTLY what I was doing? I can give you a first hand demonstration if you like, Granger," Draco smirked. "I'm sure it would be your first time, am I right?"
"Why, you—you—you—" but Hermione didn't finish. She merely picked up her book from the floor and chucked it at Draco, it hitting him square in the nose and causing it to drip with what blood was left from the bloody nose he'd received the night before.
Hermione didn't wait to see the outcome, however. She stomped off to her dormitory and slammed the door shut. She jumped onto her bed and began throwing pillows around her room in fury. After an hour of trashing her room, Hermione jumped down off her bed, picked up a few things, gathered her pillows, and returned to her bed. Without bothering to change her clothes, she settled herself under the covers.
"I'm not jealous," she huffed. 'Am I?' She shook the thought from her head and rolled over, closing her eyes and drifting into an uneasy sleep.
Draco Malfoy, however, was not having as much success sleeping as the muggle-born next door. He was resting on his bed, with his head tilted up slightly to stop the blood flow and a tissue pressed against the tender area of his face. His face, though it looked fairly odd, was contorted with anger and his hair was mussed from having run his free hand through it several times.
"Damn it!" he cursed loudly, rubbing his sore nose again and wiping away fresh blood. "I think she broke it this time…Ouch!" He massaged his nose again and, when finally the bleeding stopped, tossed the blood-soaked tissue into a wastebasket beside his bed. He scrunched it up a little, wiggled it, and fell asleep when the pain had finally subsided.
The next morning when Draco awoke he heard movement in the lavatory. He slid off his bed, grabbed his uniform and robes, and entered the bathroom, finding it curiously unlocked. He stepped in and looked around. The tub was half-full with bubbly water as it emptied and sitting over the edge of it, drying her hair, was Hermione. She was wearing her white blouse and matching panties. She glanced up and, spotting Draco coming out of his room, grabbed another nearby towel and covered her lower half.
"You're up early," she grunted sleepily. "It's only 5:30. Why is it you always pick excellent time to enter?"
"I don't have to explain myself to you, mudblood," Draco snapped grumpily, moving over to the shower and turning it on.
He dropped his school clothes on the floor out side of it and watched as Hermione tugged her skirt onto her body. After she tucked in her shirt, she gave him a glare and a derisive scoff before retreating back into her room. Draco showered and dressed and just as he was tucking his Slytherin tie into his gray sweater-vest, Hermione returned to brush her teeth.
"Just can't get enough of me, can you, Granger?" taunted Draco. Hermione pulled her toothbrush from her mouth, spit into the sink, and glared at him.
"Shut up, Malfoy," she snapped, "I'm too tired and busy to deal with you this morning." After she brushed her teeth and rinsed the toothpaste out, she set her toothbrush down and took up her bag, which she had brought in with her.
"Where are you going this morning, Granger?" Draco drawled after gelling up his hair. "Meet up with your little boyfriends?" Hermione flinched. "I never thought you could last this long away from them but I guess that just goes to show me, hm?"
Hermione took a few deep breaths and dropped her bag to the floor before rounding on Draco. Her hair had suddenly become mussed and the circles that had been forming under her eyes became ever the more evident as she glared at him from across the bathroom. Her face had an eerie glow to it that made Draco's stomach unsettled.
"I'm getting really very tired of you right now, Malfoy," she snapped. "Sometimes I almost wish that Moody had left you as a ferret because then, if you made me as furious as I am right now, I'd be able to squash you under my foot like a bug! And for your information, I am not going to meet either Harry or Ron! I'm going to the library!"
She snapped up her bag, slung it over her shoulder, and stomped out of the lavatory, slamming the door behind her. Draco had an annoyed look on his face as he finished up in the bathroom and left for breakfast.
"If we keep this up, these doors won't be standing by the end of the year," he muttered as he exited the tapestry hole and started for the Great Hall.