Stalemate

Hermione lay in her bed that night, letting all the days events run like movie through her head. It was just a normal day. Just ordinary day. She had a side job of looking after Kira for the afternoon, then dropping her off. They went shopping. Kira has an unusual talent for picking out clothes. For a six year old. Then they were on their way home when Hermione saw a man on the side of the road. They looked like a drowned rat in the gutter, but Hermione felt sorry for him He obviously could not find a taxi. But, on closer inspection, it seemed to be Draco Malfoy.

Mr. Malfoy recently had his name cleared for the events at Hogwarts by his mother, who insists he was under the Imperius curse. Pray to God she was right. But he was let of and allowed to continue at Hogwarts for his final year. What he was doing on the side of the road with a lot of suitcases was unknown to her, but she was willing to give him a hard time, in spite of him.

It turned out he had killed his mother and was on the run. Why he told her that was a mystery to her, but he wouldn't have admitted it if he wasn't feeling remorse. Maybe it was an accident. Or maybe it wasn't. And if she did try to hand him over to the police, he'd probably get to her first. He couldn't do magic, or else the ministry would track him down, but he could still attack her… With Voldemort rising, they could find him easily. And kill him easily too. So many questions passed through her head. It was a spur of the moment decision, but she decided to take him back to her house and sort him out there. She could take a risk. If he made a move, she'd blast him.

Thud thud thud…

What was that noise? Hermione was interrupted from her trail of thoughts and went to go investigate.

Draco paced Hermione's living room with heavy footsteps. He couldn't go back to school. He couldn't. After everything that happened, even though his mother cleared his name, what would happen? What would everyone think? What would happen to him? Draco pulled his hair in frustration then dropped down heavily on the couch bed. He looked up to see Hermione creeping through the door.

"Oh shit – sorry, I forgot you're staying in here. Can't sleep, huh?"

Draco bit his tongue, still thinking about his next move and didn't respond to Hermione's entrance.

"Are you ok?" She said, concerned, slowly edging towards him.

Draco sighed heavily. "I don't know what to do with myself. I'm confused at what I should do…I…"

Hermione frowned and sat down next to him on the edge of the bed. The bed sagged some more. He prepared himself for a consoling session.

"Look, I don't know why you did it, or why I'm helping you at all and I don't know why I'm letting you stay in my house, but I think" She paused to think about how she should put it, as if it confused her herself. "Fate brought you here, and we should just see where this takes us. Maybe our meeting will lead us to the answer"

Draco almost snorted but managed to suppress it. "I agree entirely"

She let out a long breathy sigh. "Well, I feel much better, don't you? I know it was a strange talk. I saw a seminar on it with my mum" she said brightly. "Speaking of my mother, she will kill me if she catches us alone. Goodnight. Try and sleep, we are going to have such fun tomorrow!"

Draco didn't like the sound of that. And what else could he do. He was stuck for the while. In a ditch. He needed her for temporary survival. Life had him at a stalemate.

---

"Good morning, good morning! We talked the whole night through good morning, good morning to yoooouu"

Draco pulled the covers over his head and loathed her stupid common muggle musical song for waking him up.

"C'mon, we are going to have such fun today"

"Can't I sleep for longer…?"

She responded to his feeble question by whipping of the covers. Draco squeaked.

"Ok, ok I'm up." He said weakly, curling into a foetal position.

----

"Now don't you take that blindfold of… ok… down, yea…Almost there. Oh so close… YES! We're here!"

Hermione undid his blind fold. The place smelt oddly familiar to him.

"Ta-da!"

Draco was slightly dazed at the light, but no one could not guess where they were. It was the hairdressers. Draco's eyes widened in realisation.

"No." He said flatly. Hermione grinned "No, no NO!" His hands flew protectively to his platinum blonde hair. "You can't, its who I am!" He moaned.

"That's the most pathetic thing I've ever heard. And that's why you need to get it coloured. It's who you are. People will recognise you with that hair."

Draco was about to walk away but the next moment he was pinned to the chair.

Draco was about to cry. His beautiful silvery blondness had turned into a flaming orange. One that was quite similar to a certain someone he hated quite dearly.

"That turned out well." A girl said from behind him. He glanced at her through the mirror. She had his hair colour, well his old hair colour. A shimmery, sleek white blonde. Wait a second. The girl looked oddly like Hermione, with a devilish smirk. It was Hermione with a devilish smirk.

"Do you like it? I like yours Ron Weasley" She said grinning and fluffing her hair. Not that was possible. It went back to its same perfect form.

Draco's eye twitched. "I hate you. I think this is just some sick perverted game that your running just so you can pretend I'm Weasley just so you can pretend to spend time with him." He said, trying to keep his voice from rising to high.

"I thought it brings out my eyes too!" She said shrilly avoiding his remark. Draco continued to look sullenly at his hair. "Oh its not going to change with you staring at it all day. Now c'mon, we have other things to do."

----

"I hate you." He said when they arrived at their destination.

"Oh stop being so pessimistic. I love carnivals. No one I know likes going with me," She twirled around, letting the lights blur around her in a whirlpool of exuberance. I wonder why, Draco thought."I can test out my new blondness to. They're supposed to have more fun you know"

"And redheads have the tendency of getting VERY angry easily." He said annoyed

"Shut up and lets go!" She said, grabbing him by the wrist and dragging him along. They were one person off from getting on the Ferris wheel, when…

"Draco Malfoy?" Someone said, their voice laced with uncertainty. Oh shit, he thought. He shot a glance of urgency towards Hermione. She reflected it. They both looked straight forward, then unexpectedly Hermione grabbed his hand and they swiftly weaved through the crowd to the parking lot.

"Hey! You there! Draco? Stop!" Said the voice again, a little distant.

Both of them dared to turn around. Hermione picked up her speed, trying her best not to look conspicuous, but failing, as they were practically running away from a person, still trying to catch up.

The car was in sight, Hermione fumbled for her keys, but bizarrely managed to get them in and she slid into the car. Draco squeezed through to the other side of the car, but to Hermione's demise, he tripped and fell. She heard his body graze against the harsh gravel ground.

"Fucking shit" She said loudly. "Draco get the fuck up!"

Hermione glanced back through her mirror. The person was getting closer. Hermione heard the car door open, and from the ground, Draco dragged himself onto the seat. Hermione started the car, but it stalled. She was breathing heavily, and the pressure was taking its toll. She tried again.

WHACK –

Was heard from the back, like someone pounding on the car window. Hermione almost jumped out of her skin, but she started the car, and shot out, leaving the man. Tall, dark tanned man standing in their parking space. He was staring straight at Draco as they sped out. It was Blaise Zabini.

A/N: That was a very strange and disjointed chapter indeed. Like me at the moment. I'm on holiday you see, right after finishing all my wack assignments and have gone crazy with boredom and my fancy new curling iron. And writer's block, you've got to give a little credit to that. I couldn't figure out what to do in this chapter, but to taunt and torture poor icky Ron – I mean Draco a little more. And I had to MAME him! BUHAHA. HAHA. And exactly what was Blaise doing there anyways? You'll have to find out… next time on… Too beautiful to lie… You and me both.

Hermione and Draco seemed a bit out of character huh. Then again, their true personalities are never disclosed, as in the book they are severely marginalised! So my imagination is as free as the north wind, to run free, letting nothing, and no one hold me down.

Hermione's a little uppity, wild and demanding probably with everything that's been going on, she just needs a break from herself or just like before the great depression, when everyone just lived life like one big party right after the war, however, that lead to dire things. Her attitude to life right now is a big difference from her usual conservativeness, but I bet as soon as she gets to school it leaves her. Like the north wind.

Draco is a bit of a push over at the moment, letting Hermione's bossiness rule him a bit, but he has gone through an emotional rough patch, and he needs Hermione, and if he stepped out of line she'd be on him like bees on honey (I'm just being weird) AND he usually has his Slytherin posse with him. SO Hermione's free to wrap him around her little finger for now. He too, when back at school will probably resume his post as Slytherin god. Whatever that means.