Disclaimer time - ok . . .blah, blah no, i do not own Draco, Hermione or any other characters you may recognize, if i did the movies would get far more interesting, trust me. those you don't recognize, such as they are, are mine. if you'd like to use, please just let me know. this is a newly edited, but still unbeta-ed chapter, because before i can update it, which i am working, i have to clean up a lot of the story, mainly because it's driving me nuts. i began this story long ago & it more than shows. hopefully, with corrections it will be even better.

Chapter 3 – The Game Begins

Where the hell is she? Draco wondered impatiently, glancing back over his shoulder to watch the door again. Snape droned on about something, but as usual, Draco was paying little, if any, attention. The sudden sound of the door slamming shut door caught the entire class' attention as Hermione coolly strolled into the room. Well, that answered the question if she had been missed, Hermione noted with a slight smile gracing her lips. Swinging her bag on her table, she turned to get her cauldron. Perhaps she hadn't gotten the answer she wanted in regards to Dumbledore's surprise announcement, but at the very least, she had made an entrance. "Ah, Miss Granger, so good of you to decide to join us at long last," Snape sarcastically addressed her. "May I be so bold as to inquire what was so important that you dared to be late for my class?" Hermione continued walking to her back to her table with her cauldron, placing it down before shrugging her shoulders, "I had something else that I had to do." "Excuse me?" He demanded in outrage. "I said, I had something else to do," she repeated herself, barely acknowledging him as she began to arrange her supplies for class. "And pray tell, what was this all important task?" He paused in front of his desk, as he studied her thoughtfully - torn between a reluctant sense of admiration for her audacity and the impulse to draw his wand upon her for her flagrant disregard for his authority in his own classroom. "Something personal." Snape glanced around the room and observed the other students behave as if they were watching an impromptu Quidditch pick-up game. Heads snapped back and forth as their audience waited to see what would happen next. The timing was unfortunate, he mused regretfully, though his expression never once changed

Under normal circumstances, he would have enjoyed the battle of wills. Merlin knew that while teaching gave him the time to peruse his own work, it rarely offer the opportunity to engage in arguments with a worthy adversary. Not to mention the fact that he was more than displeased with Granger's recent attitude and resulting performance. He had either gone so far as to voice his concerns about this entire debacle to Dumbledore, not that the fool actually them to heart.

Nonetheless, with events as they currently stood, he couldn't afford to be lenient now. "I see, Miss Granger, in that case, I hope it was worth it. 150 points from Gryffindor for your unexcused absence and demonstrated lack of remorse, additionally, you have detention with me for the next two weeks and since, of course, you were so late and missed half the class, go sit with Draco to catch up." Snape gave her a nasty smile, before turning his back to her and continuing his lecture. Feeling reckless, Hermione scoffed loud enough for half the room to hear, as she slowly began to gather her things and then confidently striding across the room. Approaching Draco, she glanced up to see his smug expression and rolled her eyes at him in apparent boredom. Leaning back in his chair, he studied her, wondering what she would define as "something personal." Holding back his laughter, he watched the expression on her face change from rebellious to satisfied and finally boredom, the last of which he couldn't quite believe. "So, Granger, tell me how does it feel to be bad?" He drawled out, as he made room for her to sit beside him. "Go to hell, Malfoy." Tilting his head towards her, he whispered, "Only if you're coming with me to keep me amused." Hermione simply responded with a sharply jabbed elbow into his side. Draco abruptly coughed to cover his sudden intake of breath from the impact, grimacing as he pulled his arm in to protect his injured side. "Is there a problem Mr Malfoy and Miss Granger that you are once again interrupting my class?" Snape asked with a bite in his voice, now focused on both of them. Looking at Hermione and seeing a militant glint in her eye, Draco swiftly kicked her in the ankle just as she opened her mouth to respond. "No, there is no problem Professor," he spoke up quickly earning himself a vicious glare from the Snape and Hermione. "Granger was just being clumsy and dropped her bag on my foot." "Liar," she viciously whispered to him. "Hmmm," Draco could see the deliberation on Snape's face as he did his best impression of being the innocent victim, while kicking her in the ankle again. "Well, don't let it happen again Miss Granger or you lose even more points for your house." "Yes, Professor," Draco answered. After giving the two of them another long look, Snape turned to finish his lecture. "What was that about?" Hermione demanded in a low whisper. Keeping his eyes locked on Snape as the professor paced in the front of class, he responded in an equally low whisper, "That was me about saving your sorry, Gryffindor ass, from detention for the rest of the year. Smirking, he continued, "You can thank me later." "Ha, as if that day would ever come," she quietly hissed. "As if you'd care if I spent the rest of my life in detention," she huffed. "Oh, you might be surprised," he taunted her in just as a low a voice. "Besides I know a better way for you to spend your time," he smoothly responded. "And what does that mean?" She demanded, but he just gave her a sardonic smile and refused to answer her further. Snape gave the class their homework assignment and most everyone quickly began filing out, but Hermione noticed that Draco stayed to talk to Snape, which sparked her curiosity. Hanging back she lingered in the room, moving slowly to the door, even as she kept her attention focused behind her, straining to hear their muted discussion. Slipping her wand out of her pocket, she was about to cast acies audio, when she stumbled headlong into Neville.

Amid a sudden explosion of apologies, the two of them knelt on the floor, picking up her scattered belongings. Hermione bit her lower lip in frustration, as her eyes darted to the two Slytherins, whose conversation had abruptly stopped as they watched, with matching expressions of amusement. So much for her stealth skills, she mentally criticized herself, before writing off the chance to eavesdrop on Snape and Draco. She refocused her attention on Neville, still apologetically blushing.

"Don't even worry about it, Nev. It was all entirely my fault for not paying attention," she soothed him, reaching out to pat him on the arm reassuringly.

From behind, she heard a caustic voice comment, "And the mudblood apologizes to the near squib, the irony of it . . ."

Raising the bad to her shoulder, she sharply met Draco's eyes, taken aback by the hardened and flat glint she saw in them. She opened her mouth to respond only to catch, Neville moving forward. Hermione held her hand up to ward off her friend.

"Come on Neville. He's not even worth it," she sneered, her clear voice cut loudly through the room and she was grimly satisfied to see Draco's glare narrow even further.

After a tense moment, Neville smiled unsurely at her, his head nodding towards the door and they walked out.

In the silence of the potions room, Draco watched her walk off with that ponce, grinding his teeth and listened as she launched into an in-depth explanation on the finer points of disabling a banshee before her voice faded out into the hallway.

"Mudblood, Draco?" Snape questioned, his voice sounding unnaturally quiet in Granger's abrupt absence. "It's been quite awhile since I've heard that word from you," he noted thoughtfully.

Draco wanted none of it, he was pissed enough as it was. Not worth it was he? Well, she'd learn soon enough. "What did you have planned for Granger's detention?" He stared off towards the door, ignoring Snape's question.

Snape raised an eyebrow at that evasive tactic. "An interesting question, Draco, since when are my detention assignments or Granger's indiscretions of any concern to you?"

Casting the older man a sidelong glance, Draco smirked. "I was thinking of a favor for a favor."

"Well," Snape drawled slowly, "that I suppose would depend entirely on what you have to offer."

Sighing now that her day was almost finally over, Hermione reluctantly walked down the hall to report for her detention. All she had to do was get through this and then go to dinner and hear Dumbledore's announcement. She entered the classroom and annoyed, resigned herself to wait for Snape's appearance. "Well, what a surprise finding you here?" She turned back to find Draco closing the door, then she heard the soft click and knew he locked it. He leaned his long body against the doorframe and smiled at her. "Stop screwing around Draco, you know why I am here. And you'd better unlock the door, before Snape shows up and starts deducting points from both of our houses," her voice remained calm, but he could hear the underlying anger and his smile grew. "Oh, but didn't he tell you?" Waiting for the question in her eyes, he continued, "You're going to be spending your detention with me- all week long." At her outraged expression, he began laughing. Trap set and sprung, oh this was definitely going to be fun.

TBC

Ok . . . again this story is in the process of being edited/updated. new chapters will be coming out fairly soon. in between writing this, i've had a fire – lost everything, some personal disasters, family deaths and more than a few computers. i lost my mailing list long ago.

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