I realized I made a few errors when I was looking over the last chapter… but it doesn't make a really big change in the story or anything so I'll just leave it be!
Okay well then, onward to chapter four!
Chapter Four: Cloak of the EnemyThis morning he expected her to yell at him again. But she didn't. She walked past him in the common room, completely ignoring his presence. But why did he care? He shouldn't care… right?
"You need to peel the shrivelfig, Granger."
She didn't say anything.
"Granger," he said waving the shrivelfig in the air at her, "you need to peel this!"
She didn't answer again.
"Miss Granger. Are you deaf?" came the slimy voice of their greasy haired Potions Professor.
"No," she muttered, finally looking up.
"Well then shouldn't you be peeling the shrivelfig that Mr. Malfoy has asked you to?"
"Yes,"
"Well then get to it. Otherwise I will have to fail you for not cooperating with your partner."
He grinned evilly at her and left their table, his robes billowing after him as he took his time to mock Neville Longbottom's potion and embarrass him about the disgusting liquid mess.
Hermione grabbed a knife and began to peel the skin off the shrivelfig, making sure not to loose her temper or she would surely cut herself.
"You're peeling it wrong," he said, reaching out to take the knife and shrivelfig.
She slapped his hand away and glared at him.
"I know what I'm doing, Malfoy."
Her hand that held the knife was now raised like she was going to stab something and her face was twisted into a glare.
"Okay, okay. Don't need to threaten me."
The rest of the class dragged on in an uncomfortable silence.
His thoughts came to the detention he had in the kitchens after class. He had never cooked before. How was he to handle cooking a Halloween feast for all of Hogwarts?
"Hopefully the rest of your potions will be better than Longbottom's here."
Snape said as he motioned towards the vile of a gray putrid looking substance that was obviously Neville's potion-gone-wrong.
Neville blushed furiously as the other Gryffindors and Slytherins rose from their seats and exited the dungeon.
Automatically, Hermione followed after Ron and Harry who were busy muttering about how Snape was a complete ass, only to be pulled back roughly in the corridor by Malfoy.
"What?" she spat at him.
"Have you forgotten that we have detention?"
"That's where I'm going."
She wrenched her arm out of his grasp and continued down the corridor.
"Granger, the kitchens are this way."
"I'm taking a shortcut…"
"Have it your way then."
His long strides were just enough to keep up with her quick short ones as they took Hermione's shortcut down to the kitchens for detention.
The thing is that Hermione had no idea where she was heading. But she couldn't admit to Malfoy that perfect Hermione Granger didn't simply know the way to the kitchens. So they walked on, passing many portraits, stairways, and statues.
"You know, shortcuts are supposed to be short. Not long,"
"Lead the way then if you're so gifted with shortcuts."
He grunted and began heading down the corridor at an even faster pace, which was hard for her to keep up with.
Finally, they reached the portrait of the fruit bowl after many moments of wandering down the corridors. Hermione reached out her hand and tickled the pare smiling to herself as she did so.
The portrait opened quietly, allowing them to enter the kitchens.
She entered the portrait first, making sure not to slip on the raw egg that had been splattered on the floor. With a flick of her wand, the egg vanished just as he stepped onto the spot it had occupied before.
Immediately, seven house elves scrambled forward and stared at them with their humungous eyes.
"May we help you, Miss?" squeaked an unusually short one, her big green eyes blinking as she waited.
"Oh… yes. We're here for detention…" The house elf seemed quite confused as she mentioned the word 'detention' so she elaborated, "You know, for our punishment we have to help you prepare for the Halloween Feast."
"And what a wonderful punishment that is! If you would-"
"One of Harry Potter's dear friends!" came an excited voice from the small crowd of house elves.
A house elf wearing socks on his ears and bright orange turtleneck pushed his way through his fellow workers.
"Oh, hello Dobby!" Hermione said, pleased with the thought that maybe her time here would not be so lonely as expected.
But her thoughts were interrupted as she Dobby's expression of happiness suddenly changed.
His eyes grew wider and he began to fiddle with the bottom of his turtleneck.
"Dobby, what's wron-"
"You stupid little house elf!" roared Draco Malfoy's voice from behind Hermione.
She had forgotten he was even there the whole time…
Draco lunged forward and grabbed Dobby's orange turtleneck, lifting him off the ground so they were face to face.
"I is not scared. I do not work for the Malfoys anymore," Dobby gulped.
"Thanks to your little friend Potter, father had to look for another house elf!"
"It not my fault," whispered Dobby.
Draco shook him and his head began to move like a bobble head doll.
"Let go of him! You're going to kill him!" yelled Hermione as she sprung forward and tried to pry Dobby out of his grip.
His grip was tight against Dobby's shirt and Hermione had to resort to biting Malfoy's hand.
"Ouch!" he cried, dropping Dobby to the cold floor and drawing his hand back, "What was that for?"
"Well if you haven't noticed, Malfoy. You almost killed Dobby!"
"You didn't have to bite me for it with your filthy beaver teeth! It's your friend potthead's fault for letting that thing free!"
He pointed a long, white finger at Dobby who was busy straightening out his turtleneck and massaging his neck.
"Don't start with me, Malfoy," she warned.
"It's your bloody fault I have to work in this stupid kitchen!"
"If you hadn't decided that Quidditch was more important then we wouldn't be here in the first place!"
"Will you stop your yapping, mudblood? That thing is trying to talk to you."
Dobby smiled at her with a wide grin.
"Dobby will take you to where you work," he said gleefully, skipping off down a row of pastry dough.
They followed after him into a space, enclosed by the surrounding shelves of pumpkins, eggs, milk, and other items used to create a Pumpkin Pasty.
There was a table in the middle, which held a variety of metal objects and a very dirty looking recipe written on some torn parchment.
"Thank you, Dobby. Remember, working as a Hogwarts house elf isn't the only thing to do in live, why-"
"Granger, persuading it to become 'free' is never going to work so start your cooking already,"
She glared at him before walking over to the shelf, which held the pastry dough.
"Here." She grabbed a handful of dough and threw it towards Malfoy.
"Oof." The dough hit him squarely in the face (as she had intended).
"What the bloody hell was that for, Granger?" He said rubbing his hand across the spot it had on his face.
"You need to kneed the dough,"
"…do what to the dough?"
"Honestly, have you never cooked before?"
"Well…"
"You haven't cooked have you?"
"Like it matters? That's what house elves are for!"
"You're such a spoiled prat! You get everything you want without doing anything!"
"I don't get everything I want…"
"What?"
"Nothing,"
"But what did you mea-"
"Nevermind what I said!"
"…you still need to kneed the dough…"
"I hate this bloody dough!"
Malfoy yelled and threw the dough fiercely down onto the table, causing it to shake slightly.
"Having some trouble?"
He grunted.
"I don't know how to 'kneed' the dough,"
"How pathetic are you?" She shoved him aside and began pushing her fingers outwards into the dough and roll it over.
He watched her amusingly for a while.
Obviously she was talented in the kitchen, unlike him.
But as her brow began to furrow in concentration, he couldn't help but grin a little, kicking himself in his head for doing so though.
"Okay," said Hermione after finishing her job of dough kneeding, which the incompetent Malfoy could not do, "we need to make the filling for the pastries."
"Er…"
She rolled her eyes and walked over to the shelf, which held the Pumpkins, eggs, and milk.
"Please tell me you know how to cut a pumpkin open,"
"I'm not dumb, Granger. Of course I do."
He grabbed a knife and easily slid it into the pumpkin, forcing it downwards and pulling the two halves apart.
"Well… it says to take out the insides," said Hermione, reading the instructions.
"I'm not reaching my hand into that disgusting stuff,"
"Oh please. It's just a pumpkin. Use a spoon then."
He took a large spoon from the table and scooped out the insides, trying his best not to touch.
Once it was in the bowl, Hermione added the eggs and milk then began to stir the mixture with a wooden spoon.
"Okay, you stir it now."
She handed Malfoy the bowl and spoon.
He stirred it slowly, just like he would a potion.
It was a good thing he was quite talented in Potions.
The bowl now contained a strange, smooth mixture that was an orangey-brown color with brown specs.
After pouring the pumpkin filling into the batches of pastry dough, he put the many racks one by one into the large oven and used his wand to create a fire underneath the racks.
"Well I guess that's done with," said Hermione as she leaned against a shelf next to the oven.
Draco grunted and stared down at the floor.
His eyes widened a little.
"Er…"
"What?"
He pointed at the floor.
The end of Hermione's cloak had caught on fire and the flames were slowly creeping up her clothing.
"Malfoy, you numbskull!" she yelled at him, flailing her arms.
He stepped forward and tried stepping on the fire with his foot, only causing her cloak to tear at the seams.
"MALFOY!"
The fire was still blazing at the bottom of her robe and getting higher and higher.
"It won't go out!" He yelled to her over the noise of her yells and the commotion that several house elves were making.
"MAYBE YOU SHOULD TRY AND USE YOUR WAND!" She yelled frantically.
He had forgotten all about his wand.
Whipping it out from under his cloak, he used a simple spell to extinguish the fire, only a trace of smoke in the air still left.
He expected her to thank him for saving her life poor little life (A/N: Yes it's supposed to sound overly dramatic) but…
"MALFOY! THANKS TO YOU MY CLOAK IS RUINED AND I WAS ALMOST GOING TO BE BURNED TO A CRISP!" she shouted at him.
He stared at her, stunned at her burst of outrage.
"Ugh!" she stormed away from him and towards the exit to the kitchens.
"Granger! What's wrong with you?" he said, running after her.
She glared at him and threw her cloak, which she had taken off towards him.
It was ripped and smelled like smoke, several parts tinged from the burn.
"Does that answer your question?"
"What do you want me to do about it? Get over it! It's just a cloak!"
"That's my only cloak! I'm not rich like you and can buy as many cloaks as I want… and it's getting cold!"
Indeed, the corridors were quite cold around this time before dinner and late into the night as well.
"Well as I've already asked, what do you want me to do-"
"Mr. Malfoy, Miss Granger, what seems to be the problem?"
Dumbledore had come up behind them in the corridor unnoticed, his purple cloak trailing behind himself as he went on his way to dinner.
"Miss Granger, did you have a mishap in the kitchen?"
She nodded.
"And no cloak? It must be awfully cold,"
She nodded again.
"Here…" Malfoy muttered as he took of his cloak and tossed it over towards her.
She caught it and looked slightly stunned before slowly putting it on, the sleeves draping over her hands and the bottom of the cloak sprawled across the floor.
He was much bigger than her.
"Well I guess we should be going to dinner now, shall we?"
He strolled down the corridor towards the stairs, which took them to the Great Hall.
Hermione followed after him, not willing to be left alone in a dark corridor with Malfoy.
Draco continued after her, finding it quite easy to keep up with her pace.
Upon reaching the Great Hall, she walked in and immediately was shot strange looks as she walked over to sit by Harry, Ron, and Ginny.
"Hermione… are you wearing Slytherin robes?" asked Harry.
"Well-"
"Whose robes are those?" interrupted Ron, a hint of jealousy in his voice.
"…Malfoy's." Harry, Ron, and Ginny began to choke on the food that they had been eating.
"Hermione! Why are you wearing his robes?" Ron coughed.
"Well mine accidentally caught on fire and Dumbledore made him let me use it,"
"You don't have to, Hermione."
Ron was obviously jealous. His ears were beginning to turn red with anger.
Harry and Ginny however were not as upset. In fact, Ginny didn't even seem to be upset about it at all.
The rest of dinner progressed slowly and awkwardly.
Hermione received several stares and glances from other students who seemed bewildered at her choice of wardrobe.
When she had looked across the table, she found the whole Slytherin table glaring at her. Malfoy seemed like he didn't even notice.
Finally, dinner came to a close and Hermione quickly left, followed by Ginny who was eager to talk to her about her day.
Upon reaching the portrait door to Hermione's common room, she bid Ginny goodnight, only to have her speak once more.
"Goodnig-"
"Hermione… do you like Malfoy?"
"…no. Why would you ask something-"
"Well night, Herm."
"Ginny! You get back here-GINNY!"
But she had already disappeared down another corridor.
That night, Hermione wondered about several things:
Why had Malfoy been willing to let her use his cloak?
Why did Ginny ask if she liked Malfoy?
Why did he forget to use his wand to help her? Normally it was like a natural instinct… but he seemed to just have stood there, looking stunned and was that hurt he saw in his eyes? It was like he was remembering something… something hurtful…
Her thoughts were instantly interrupted with a loud knock on her bedroom door sounded.
I really have no clue how to make Pumpkin Pasties so I just wrote down what I thought you would use… so don't try it!