The two sat in the nearly empty quidditch stands, Ginny intently staring out at the field as flashes of green whizz by, and Hermione absentmindedly flipping through a book. Every few minutes or so, she glances up, looking around for a shimmer of blonde hair darting across the field.
"He's getting worse, you know," Ginny said pushing at Hermione's knee.
"Who?"
"Who? Your prince" Ginny chuckles, "He seems distracted- probably by you so I'd say keep it up for me."
Hermione opened her mouth to reply but she stopped as she saw a familiar trio sauntering across the stands. Pansy is leading Blaise and Theo over toward the two of them.
"This should be interesting" Ginny mumbles.
"Spying on the enemy, Weasley?" Theo asks bravely.
"Not much to spy on, Nott" Ginny smirks, as Theo plops down next to her.
"Granger" Pansy says softly, but loud enough for them all to hear.
"Parkinson" Hermione acknowledges, "thank you for standing up for me today."
"Huh?" Pansy says looking at her confused.
"To those 3rd years talking about Malfoy and I"
"Oh, I mean it's the least I can do after what I did," Pansy said, not noticing Hermione's confused look on her face, "I know Draco told you, and I'm so sorry. I didn't know you were, ya know who you are, and his mother is just so convincing."
"It's… Okay." Hermione managed to get out, honestly unsure what she was talking about. Pansy stood there awkwardly before Hermione patted the seat next to her gesturing for her to sit down.
"Uh I actually can't stick around" Pansy said shifting her weight, "I'm supposed to meet lavender in the library, but I'll see you all later." She walked to the end of the bleachers glancing behind only once before heading back up to the castle.
"Well that was bloody awkward" Blaise said from where he laid across the bleachers a few rows down.
"What was she on about?" Ginny asked.
"No clue" Hermione shrugged, "either of you know?"
"Hermione, if we knew how Pansy's brain worked do you think Nott would let her bully him every day?" Blaise retorted, arms flailing in the air as he spoke, "No he would be a fancy muggle brain surgeon."
"She does not bully me!"
"No, she doesn't bully you, she just uses you as her little puppet."
Before Theodore could respond to Blaise, Draco flew over above them, "Granger, as I live and breathe, not in the library on a Monday?"
"Weasley here managed to drag her out to come spy on you guys" Blaise shouted to him.
"Not spying! And I didn't drag her out she got kicked out!"
Draco began laughing so hard, he nearly fell off his broom "Granger? KICKED OUT?"
"First of all, Ginny got me kicked out. Second, I'm not always in the library!" to the latter comment everyone turned to Hermione and looked at her as if she had three heads.
Draco winked at her before, flying off toward the rest of his team members.
Hermione must've not realized she was still smiling after Draco had flown off until she heard laughter coming from the other three, "what?"
"You're blushing, cousin"
"She's smitten with Malfoy" Theo commented.
"Something more than smitten" Ginny added.
"Oh shush" Hermione said, blushing harder. She knew she wanted to be with him because he made her melt every time they were together. Hermione also knew there were several problems in the way. She needed to confront him about his dark mark. He was totally keeping from her whatever it was Pansy was on about. On top of all that, Hermione didn't even know if he was interested in her. She knew he was interested in touching her, kissing her, even getting a rise out of her, but was he interested in her? In being committed to her, the real her.
"I'm going to head back up to the castle," Ginny announced, "Slytherin has officially been deemed not a threat to Gryffindor's crown in my book."
"Please, Weasley" Blaise retorted, "you're shaking in your knickers watching them."
Theo basically choked at the word knickers.
"I believe the term is 'shaking in your boots', Zabini, and no I most certainly am not"
"I said what I said, and I meant it, Weasley" Blaise said confidently, "Plus I don't think you're a boots girl."
"He really means he would rather think about your knickers" Theo commented.
"Who wouldn't, Nott" Ginny retorted, before turning towards Hermione, "You coming 'mione?"
"You guys head up. Looks like they're wrapping up practice so I'm going to wait for Malfoy."
"Suit yourself", Ginny said, swinging her bag over her shoulder, "come on boys, mama's hungry." The two boys turned to each other grinning and high fived behind Ginny's back, but she immediately knew what they were doing, "For Dinner! Get your mind out of the gutter, dirty boys."
"Can't blame a guy for getting excited" Theodore said.
"Poor Nott, so close to losing his virginity" Blaise teased.
The three walked off toward the castle, Hermione remained back as the Slytherin team headed into the locker room. She felt her heartbeat pick up as she grabbed her things and walked down the stands.
Hermione waited for Draco outside the locker room, bag over her shoulder, clutching a book tight to her chest. She cursed at herself under her breath, relax it's just Draco. Worst thing that happens is he breaks up with you, and things go back to normal. Her heart picked up pace at the thought of it, Of course you would get broken up with for the fricking Dark Lord, only you Hermione.
As Crabbe and Goyle sauntered out of the locker room, Hermione realized that everyone had left besides Draco. Looking around first, Hermione slowly made her way into the boys locker room. She tried not to take any deep breaths at first, afraid of what might hit her nose, but as she ran out of air, she gave in only to realize that someone most definitely charmed the locker room as it wasn't nearly as disgusting as she expected.
She turned the corner and saw Draco's blonde hair. Her eyes traveled down his muscular back, revealing two dimples that settled right above where his towel hung. As Hermione approached she noticed scars down his back, too many for a quidditch practice in her opinion. Without thinking she reached out to touch them, but as the tips of her fingers reached his skin, she was just as quickly pressed up against a locker.
Draco's right forearm pinned against her, "Haven't you learned your lesson, sneaking up on me like that?" he smirked.
Hermione knew he could feel her heart beating, "I… uh… forgot."
"Distracted?" he said with a smirk, letting Hermione go. "Not that this isn't a fantasy of mine, but you do know this is a boys locker room, Granger?"
Hermione rolled her eyes, "I just... wanted to talk to you. In private."
Draco looked at her nervously, before grabbing his boxers and sliding them on underneath his towel, "About?"
Hermione decided to start with the easier subject, "so pansy spoke to me today."
"She's surprisingly good at talking" Draco sarcastically commented.
"Draco" Hermione snapped, getting his attention, "she apologized and said something about your mother. I wasn't sure what she was on about but whatever it was she assumed you told me."
Draco looked up at her as he put his belt on, sighing "look, Granger, I was going to tell you, but honestly I thought you'd get mad at me and i hate when you're mad. " Hermione just shot him a look and he knew he was cornered, "it was my mother who leaked who you were to the prophet."
Hermione's jaw dropped, "What? H-how did she... why did she-"
"I'm not going to claim to know the inner workings of my mother's brain, but she was trying to get me in the paper for some good attention. She reached out to Pansy asking if I was seeing anyone in an effort to dig up dirt, and without knowing, Pansy handed her a gold mine."
Hermione ran her hand through her hair, "umm... wow."
"Yep." Draco said, sitting down to put his shoes on, "Welcome to Malfoy family manipulation."
"I wish I could say I can't relate," Hermione said walking over to him, "my mother just doesn't have a Pansy." Hermione stood in front of him, a leg on either side of his, she brought her hand to his chin lifting it up, "I could never blame you for something your parents did." She planted a soft kiss on his lips.
As she pulled back, she saw it out of the corner of her eye. His dark mark. Her eyes flicked back up to his and he knew he was caught.
"Draco what-"
Before she could get her words out, she was pulled down onto his lap, his arms wrapped around her waist, and mouth planted firmly on hers. For a second or two she was swept in, allowing her mouth to open for his tongue, and his hands to roam up and down her backside. Hermione was lightheaded in his arms, but suddenly she realized what he was doing. He was trying to distract her into forgetting about it. She pushed against his chest, and out of his grip, before he reached for her again.
"Hermione" Draco said with an ounce of desperation as his branded arm attempted to wrap around her again.
This time she shoved him harder, sending him toppling backwards off the bench. Quickly, Hermione grabbed her bag off the ground and booked it out of the locker room without looking back. No one was around to hear the crash of Draco's locker when he slammed, it shut or the curses he muttered under his breath.
Hermione spent the following day by herself, stuck in her own thoughts, which she deemed almost as dangerous as whatever path Draco was on. Ginny knew she wanted to be left alone since she walked into dinner the previous night, without making eye contact with anyone, sitting with just a book at the ravenclaw table. It always resulted in a violent change in hair color, this time around it was a periwinkle that ironically seemed to blend into her house tie.
All of her friends had seen this side of her before, usually at the hands of a fight with her mom or a snarky comment from a Weasley. Draco, however, had never dealt with this or honestly any problem with a woman besides his mother. He was dealing with it how he dealt with most problems, ignoring that there was a problem and assuming it would resolve itself.
Hermione spoke her first word since the prior night in the locker room in transfiguration. She was aggressively taking notes when he quill began to run out of ink, but determined to finish her last sentence began to scrap the quill against her parchment over and over again. Harry slid his ink pot over a few inches towards her, without looking up from his own notes.
"Thanks" was all she replied, taking a deep breath before continuing her notes. Harry, Ron and Luna all exchanged a look, acting as if there was some sort of medical breakthrough.
The second phase of upset Hermione following silence was anger. You could never tell how long anger would last. With Hermione, her friends knew that her silence never lasted more than a few hours to a day, but anger took it's many shapes, and forms. It could be clear and loud, or just targeting the one person who pissed her off. After transfiguration however, it took the form of what Ron referred to as a "abusive of her bloody power" in her role as prefect. Hermione seemed to be giving detentions and chiding any one that got in her way or irritated her. So much so that Beware the Periwinkle Prefect seemed to be whispered throughout the halls. A poor group of second year boys caught her wrath when she caught them flying paper birds and each other. Hermione lit them all on fire, and gave the boys a weeks worth of detention with filch.
By the time potions was about to start, the gang was very concerned for Draco's welfare. Well Ginny and Luna were concerned, Harry and Ron were excited.
"She's going to skin him alive" Ron almost cheered with a huge grin on his face.
"Skin him?" Harry questioned, "the whole room is filled with possible explosives and she's super pissed. The possibilities are endless and you go with skinning?"
Ron shrugged, and Luna chimed in, "Harry's right you know. Her aura today is very dark."
"So I take it no one is going to stop this?" Ginny said, "you're just gonna let her blow up on Malfoy in front of everyone."
"What? you expect us to take a bullet for bloody malfoy?!" Ron pressed.
"We all know you're not a martyr, Weasley" Blaise said, sliding up next to Ginny in the hallway, "What are you doing here little weasel"
"I've been in this class since the beginning of the year!"
"I don't think he's talking about you Ronald" Luna said, with a slight eye roll she thought no one would notice.
"Oh" Ron mumbled to himself.
"Honestly it's my free period, but I couldn't resist the possibility of Hermione blowing up Malfoy," Ginny said, grinning cheekily.
"Aaah Good Afternoon!" Slughorn exclaimed as he walked into the classroom, "take your seats I have a full packed lesson for us today."
"You all better give me a play by play of what happens!" Ginny said, poking Luna in the side just to get a smile out of her.
"I'll see you later?" Blaise asks, "at Slughorn's thing?"
"I'll save a seat for you" Ginny winks before scurrying out of the classroom.
The kids all take their seats, turning their attention to the front of the room. Not at the professor though, to Hermione and Draco sitting in the front right, neither breathing a word to each other.
Draco shifted uncomfortably in his seat as Slughorn began the class, lecturing them on the potion they were about to brew.
He leaned toward Hermione, well aware of the fact that she was moving further away from him, "so you're mad at me then?"
Hermione responded with a grunt, or what Draco would describe as more like air blowing aggressively out of her nose.
"10 sickles to me, Weasley. Draco made first contact." Blaise whispered from behind Harry and Ron.
"Hermione, just look at me" Draco almost begged. Hermione didn't even flinch to look up, but her anger was clearly channeled through her quill, which promptly snapped. "Here take mine" Draco said, forcing his quill towards her.
"Mr. Malfoy," Slughorn said, grabbing the class's attention, "something you would like to share with the class?"
"Uh… Granger just… she broke her quill...and I" Draco attempted to speak, waving his quill in front of him.
"Miss Granger is a smart young woman. I'm sure she has a spare quill for herself" Slughorn said, before continuing his lesson where he left off.
When Draco turned back, Hermione had a brand new quill in her hand and was already taking notes. He sighed, rubbing his temple as he turned towards the professor trying desperately to focus on potions instead of how much of a fool he was and is probably going to make himself in order to win Hermione over.
The minute Slughorn said to get their ingredients, Draco volunteered to get them for Hermione, and ran off towards the cupboard.
"Really smooth today, Malfoy" Theo commented, sliding next to him, snickering.
"Lay off, Theo. Should you be so lucky to get a girl like Hermione mad at you" Blaise said, clapping Draco on the back, reaching around him for an ingredient. "Look, Malfoy" Blaise whispered to him, "just let her breath. Go through class just talking about the potion, and then maybe ask her to get lunch in Hogsmeade this weekend and talk."
"I don't understand why she won't just yell at me and get through it so we can move on."
"You really think anyone normal can just move on from a little detail like that?" Blaise said, "Not everyone's Pansy."
"You talking about me, Zabini?" Pansy said overhearing their conversation.
"How could a guy not have someone as beautiful as you on their mind?" Blaise grinned cheekily.
"Oh shush" Pansy said, blushing slightly, "Draco, I hate to say it, but Blaise is right. A girl like Granger needs time to methodically think through what she needs to say to you, pushing her to explode won't help."
Draco groaned, grabbing his last ingredient, and heading back to his table. Draco lined up the ingredients in order in front of the two of them, just like he knew Hermione liked, and quietly sat back waiting for Granger to take the lead.
The two went through the potion without speaking, which was not new for them, but still unusual. In a regular class, they got into a rhythm for brewing potions. They didn't really discuss the potion unless Hermione disagreed with how Draco was preparing an ingredient, which of course happened at least twice a class. The rest of the brewing time, they prepared a perfect potion and Draco shameless flirted with Hermione. He loved getting her to blush as much as possible while no one could hear a word he said.
Today however, the two moved together with the same ease, but Hermione did not correct Draco on anything and Draco did not breathe a word to her. All he could think about was how to ask her to lunch in hogsmeade without getting into a screaming match or worse getting into some sort of pyrotechnic accident.
They finished up and bottled their potion, and Professor Slughorn was going around testing each one when Draco slid Hermione a note "Get lunch with me Saturday in Hogsmeade? Please xx Draco"
Draco watched (although not just him, Harry, Ron, Blaise, Luna and Pansy watched eagerly) as she took it in her hands, unfolded the edges of parchment, and read every single word. She then folded it back up, leaned forward in front of Draco towards the cauldron, and stuck the parchment in the flame beneath, burning it to a crisp.
The second Slughorn set them free, Hermione stormed out, ignoring Draco calling after her. Draco stood there defeated.
"You'll get her next time champ" Blaise said, slapping him on the shoulder.