I never do this, but here we go:

LAST TIME:

She was going to pay for treating him like this, Draco thought sourly as he slouched over and sat facing the fountain. He glanced back over his shoulder to see her at some kind of booth...TELEPHONE, read the blue letters over the top. He couldn't quite make out the conversation, but she was looking at the back of the credit card, which worked in both the wizarding and Muggle worlds, and appeared to be reading off the numbers. Draco shrugged and turned back to the fountain. He wondered what sort of vehicle would get them there in such a short amount of time...


"Get in, Malfoy. Hurry up," Hermione snapped. "We've got half an hour to be at the checkpoint."

Draco frowned at her. "By car?" He looked suspiciously at the dark-blue Mercedes-Benz. "Are you mad?"

"Please tell me you've been in a car before!"

"Well, yes," he said defensively, "but it was one of those great long limo things, and it wasn't driven by a bloody teenage girl!"

Hermione straightened up, one hand still on the car door. "Would you like to drive, Mr. I-know-what-I'm-doing?"

"Shut it."

She laughed and got into the car, Draco grumbling as he followed suit.

It was quite a nice vehicle, even for a Mercedes. Draco's dual Muggle-and-wizarding-world credit card had paid for its rental. Hermione grinned as she inserted the key into the ignition.

"Seat belt?" she asked Draco, who had strapped himself in quite snugly and was examining the window buttons. He rolled his eyes and went back to his examination. Hermione put on hers and, foot firmly on the brake, turned the key.

The car's engine roared to life. Draco jumped and glared at the dash. The only car he had ever been in, a limousine as he had told Hermione, had run smoothly, with little real power under the hood, or at least the chauffeur had not been permitted to drive faster than necessary, for Lucius Malfoy did not trust Muggle technology. But this—this was a powerful car. He glanced somewhat nervously at Hermione as she reached for the gearshift. She turned and grinned at him. "Hold on."

Draco did not like the sound of that.

The expressway was quite crowded at this time of the morning. Draco had never seen so many cars in his life, or so many vehicles for that matter. He realized with great consternation that they were currently speeding up a long, narrow ramp that ended in the left lane of the freeway, instead of in a separate lane. And the left lane was extremely crowded...

Hermione loved this car. It responded perfectly to her every motion; a gentle touch on the pedal sent the car leaping forward and the brakes were the best she had ever seen. She watched for an opening in the line of traffic and zoomed between two cars. Draco let out what sounded like a squeak.

"You okay?"

"Fine." He glared at her. Hermione grinned evilly. "All I did was merge," she informed him. "We've got a long way to go before we get there."

"Do I look like I care?" he snapped, but she could see that his knuckles were gripping the armrest a little harder than normal. "Actually, yeah," she replied, laughing.

"Shut it," he growled.

A while later, someone changed lanes right in front of them. "Bloody idiot!" Draco cursed, gripping his armrest even harder. Hermione glanced at him. "What are you talking about?"

"What do you mean, what am I talking about?" Draco looked at her, astonished. "That idiot...didn't you see that?"

"He just changed lanes."

"Right in front of us!"

"That's how you drive here. In other cities, they put on the blinker, look, drift into the other lane. Here, it's look...look...blinker GO."

"Uh-HUH. Keep your eyes on the road, Granger."

"What are you, my driving teacher?"

"No," he said, sounding somewhat strained. "I'm trying to keep us alive until we get to the checkpoint."

"Oh bugger!"

"What?"

"We're in the EXIT ONLY lane!" Hermione and suddenly jerked the car over into the next lane. Draco protested loudly.

"Now you shut it, Draco." Hermione glanced back over her right shoulder, and, before Draco could utter a sound, floored the accelerator. The RPM flew up and the Mercedes appeared to nearly leap out of her hands, weaving in and out of the different lanes and nearly clipping a car's back bumper before ending up in the fast lane, cruising down the freeway with no cars ahead of them.

Draco was far paler than normal. "Oh...my...God," he breathed. "What was THAT? Are you trying to kill us?" He glanced over at the speedometer. "I didn't know anything went this fast!"

"I..." She was cut short as someone swerved into their lane, cutting them off, and suddenly slowed down to take a right-hand exit. Hermione Granger, model student/daughter/everything, slammed her fist down on the horn and yelled something that made Draco's eyes widen, giving the driver a highly inappropriate hand gesture with her free hand. "Deleted! What the deleted are you doing? Get off the road, you deleted deleted!"

Draco looked at her with shocked admiration. "Granger? What the—"

Hermione's eyes stayed on the road, but her cheeks were tinged pink; whether it was with embarrassment or pride—or both—Draco couldn't tell. Holding on with one hand, she reached for the radio and fiddled with it until a song came on that she liked. Draco didn't much care for it, but he decided to keep his mouth shut—his life was, after all, literally in her hands.

He soon learned to hate the Beatles.


Please review! I especially liked writing this chappie (I hope it's a tad more in character bickering-wise), so click that little purplish-grayish-whatever-color-it-is button and write something! Thanks, I look forward to hearing from you. :)

etherealfire