Hermione woke up the next morning, with instant dread in her mind and sickening butterflies that filled her stomach. She groaned and rolled over on her four-poster, regretting what she had to do. Looking through the cracks of her eyes, she saw it was only barely after sunrise. 'Too early' she thought and buried her head into her pillow. But she realized there was no way of going back to sleep after waking up, and begrudgingly sat up for a minute; rubbing the sleepiness out of her eyes.
Finally after getting her clothes on, brushing that wild mane she called hair, and brushed her teeth, she was ready for the day. By a quick glance at her bedside clock, she realized it was only 6:00 in the morning. Hermione's head spun for a second, wondering what on earth made her wake up that early. It just wasn't part of her quote on quote "usual behavior". But then again, nothing Hermione ever did was usual.
The brunette just shrugged it off and carefully went down the stairs to the common room. Finally, she made it to the entrance door and went out through it; not wanting to spend another minute alone in the common room. Despite not knowing why she woke up so early, she had this sickening feeling in her gut that told her to be wary. Just in case.
Hermione meandered her way towards the only place she knew overall was safe, the library. Of course it was the library, no where else was Hermione completely content in her thoughts and feelings, purely caught up in the knowledge from the books she read effortlessly. Suddenly she saw someone pull her out of her thoughts, or whether, she thought she did.
Whoever they were was too far ahead in the corridor she was in for her to see them clearly. Hermione squinted and finally caught a glimpse of the person's hair; ...blonde. She knew at once who it was, Draco Malfoy. For Merlin's sake can she never get rid of him! But of course he was her mission, and Hermione promised herself she'd never miss the opportunity to go by the rules that Dumbledore intrusted her with; ...and that included being apart of his daily life.
Hermione reluctantly followed him to the library, wary to not let him see her...at least she gave her best effort, anyway. When the Gryffindor got closer to the entrance, she couldn't see Malfoy anywhere. She whipped her head almost violently back-and-forth, trying to locate the Slytherin. When she thought she heard someone from a nearby bookcase, she went over in the direction.
When she got over where she heard the noise, there was no sign of him anywhere. Suddenly, Malfoy charged at her pinning her to a wall next to a random bookcase.
"Why are you following me!" he demanded, staring at her. His hands squeezing her shoulders tightly.
"I wasn't following you!" Hermione protested, not looking up at him.
"Oh really! Then what were you doing going in the same direction as me!?" Malfoy stated, putting his face closer to her's which forced her to look at him.
"I was looking for a book about Charms, and I needed Madame Pince's help. Then I heard a noise and figured it was her, not you!" Hermione said nervously, trying to sound convincing enough for him to loosen his grip on her.
He hesitantly let go of her. "Well, that's good to hear then" he smirked at her and stalked off to somewhere else in the library.
Hermione took in a sigh of relief that he'd believed her and left her alone. She did as she had told him and grabbed a random book about Charms and sat down at an empty table.
She was left in complete silence for about five minutes, until Malfoy begrudgingly sat down at a table not far from hers. Hermione couldn't help but be startled by him actually being in the same area of the library as her.
But then she realized he was trying to do homework, but apparently failing at it because every few seconds he looked up at her over his book. Obviously needing help, but not saying it due to his huge ass ego and prejudices that he had been raised on since birth. The brunette had the same thing happen to her on many occasions when Ron or Harry needed her help but was too chicken to say anything, not the prejudices though.
Hermione mentally sighed to herself and walked over to him. She pulled up a chair to his table, her chair creaking when she sat down in it.
"What do you need help with?" Hermione asked after a couple of seconds of silence.
Malfoy looked up from his book hesitantly. "Absolutely nothing! Whatever gave you that accusation, Granger?" Draco scoffed.
"Fine then, guess I'll go have breakfast. See you around, Malfoy" Hermione said, standing up and attempting to walk out; fully knowing he'd beckon her back over.
"Wait!" Draco started, mentally slapping himself for even asking for her help. "I need your help with a Charms assignment".
"Well then, you've come to the right witch" Hermione smirked triumphantly and sat back down; knowing she'd made some type of progress.
After about fourty minutes of working with the 'Ferret' , Hermione realized he wasn't actually that bad. Of course, there were always differences but nothing Hermione couldn't overlook for the benefit of the entire wizarding world. Hermione tried to be... flirtatious of sorts the entire time, trying to catch his attention by occasional to long looks at him or by getting in his personal space bubble when he asked for a particular page in a book.
It was all Hermione had to go by, to be honest. All she'd learned, romance wise, was from Jane Austen and Shakespearean plays...and most of those ended out as tragedies. Low and behold, finally after what felt like a herculean feat, she had managed to help him finish his assignment.
Hermione cast a tempus charm and saw that it was 7:45. "Holy shit, I'm gonna be late for Potions! See you around Malfoy" Hermione said all at once, and ran off in the direction of the dungeons.
Malfoy stalked off in the same direction not looking up. Suddenly she stopped in the middle of the doorway, apparently perplexed by something she saw. Hermione started to talk backwards and ran straight into Malfoy, and they ended up falling on top of each other in a tangled mess.
"Sorry" Hermione mumbled, standing up and dusting off her clothes.
"It's fine" Draco mumbled through gritted teeth of no doubt aggravation and stood up. "What the fuck were you looking at anyway?".
Hermione just pointed to outside the doorway. Draco peeked his head through and there was Weaslbee and Brown snogging in the a window seat opposite of the doorway.
Draco turned his head back around so he could look at Hermione. "Oh..." Malfoy trailed off, finally putting all the pieces together.
"Yeah" was all Hermione said tears threating to pour, before rushing past him, determined to actually get to Potions on time.
"Today, class, we will be learning about how to make veritaserum" Slughorn announced in his big booming voice.
Suddenly, a very embarrassed and red faced Draco Malfoy came in through the door of the Potions classroom.
"Mr. Malfoy finally you're here. Five points from Slytherin and detention after school!" the old wizard said and Malfoy sat down immediately.
Hermione wanted to strangle herself for what she was about to say, but she knew it was the only way to make a move on...her mission. "But Professor can't you let Malfoy off the hook this once, I'm sure it won't happen again!" Hermione jumbled all together, the words spilling embarrassingly out of her mouth.
The whole class gasped when she said that, definitely not expecting her to stand up for Draco Fucking Malfoy of all people. "Miss Granger that is quite enough! My word is final. Five points from Gryffindor and you'll have detention after school as well" Slughorn said very loudly, making the walls of the dungeon reverberate and echo through all the student's ears for at least two seconds.
Hermione huffed, sat down begrudgingly, and got out her Potions book. Harry gave her a 'what the actual fuck!' look from across the room. The brunette just shrugged in response, putting her full attention back on Slughorn.
The rest of the day went by sluggishly, but finally it was nearing the time for detention...with Malfoy. Hermione wasn't looking forward to it, even though she tried to, really she did with him being her mission and everything, but she just hated having to lie to someone even if it was Malfoy.
Even during dinner, she couldn't concentrate on anything definitive, and instead kept glancing in Malfoy's direction. Though he couldn't see her do to his back being turned, but every once in a while a random Slytherin would glare back at her; as to tell her to fuck off or something.
"Umm Hermione? Hello?" Ginny said suddenly waving her hand in front of the brunette's face, bringing Hermione out of her trance.
"I'm sorry Ginny, what were you saying?" Hermione asked exasperatedly and frazzled.
"Oh I was just wondering if you were going to come to The Burrow this year" Ginny responded excitedly and took a bite of her jello. "Mum was wondering anyway".
"Ohhh, Merlin I'm sorry Ginny. I've already got plans" Hermione said almost blandly and poked repeatedly at her kidney pie with her fork before taking a bite.
"And what might those plans be, hmmm?" Ginny asked, wiggling her eyebrows.
"I was just going to stay at Hogwarts, my parents are on vacation to France. And besides, I don't want to intrude I know it'll be crammed for space at The Burrow; and I don't want to cause a scene or anything" the older Gryffindor said quickly before digging into another bite of her pie.
"Ehem yeah...sure" Ginny said definitely not convinced.
"Well I am!" Hermione protested.
"And it has nothing to do with a bloke?" Ginny deadpanned.
Hermione was basically shocked Ginny could read her so easily. "Maybe" Hermione muttered.
"Aha, I knew it! I promise I won't tell Harry or Ron though" the redhead smirked, crossing her fingers as she took a sip of pumpkin juice.
"Oh my God, I almost forgot", Hermione started, "I have detention with Malfoy".
"Good luck with that asshole" Ginny said, obvious malice in her voice when she spoke of the ferret.
"Thank you, I'll need it" Hermione stated as she stood up and made her way to the dungeons.
"Ahh, Miss Granger, there you are" Slughorn bellowed when Hermione opened the door.
"Sorry for being late Professor" Hermione said almost awkwardly as she sat down in her usual chair.
"No worries" the old Slytherin said. "Though I was quite surprised that Mr. Malfoy, got here before you. Considering your punctuality".
Hermione instantly turned her head to the side to see Malfoy lightly smirking at her. Like he smirked at everyone, that same arrogant son of a bitch smirk...
"Now I suppose I should duel out your punishments", Slughorn began, "Miss Granger, you'll be alphabetizing my ingredients collection in the cupboard. And Mr. Malfoy, you'll clean the scum off the caldrons, I know particularly Mr. Longbottom's caldron got very messy today due to the veritaserum".
Hermione and Draco nodded in unison, and immediately got going on their tasks."Unfortunately, though, I'll have to go for a few minutes. Professor McGonagall was wanting some veritaserum on hand for emergencies, and she says she has to have it tonight" Slughorn said and went to the door and waved at them both, leaving the Gryffindor and Slytherin by themselves.
"So" Draco said after a few minutes, breaking the obvious ice. "Why'd you stand up for me earlier?".
This put Hermione so off-guard she almost dropped the jar of lace wing flies she was holding. "I just did, Malfoy. Why does it matter?".
"Well you've never done it before, so why start now Granger?" Malfoy spat at her, and wiped clean yet another caldron.
"I just wanted to, okay! So get off my fucking case!" Hermione argued back, anger and malice rising in her voice.
"Ooo, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" Draco teased, glaring up at her over the caldron he was currently laboring over.
"Sod off you asshat!" the brunette muttered through gritted teeth, and rearranged the last of the jars in the cupboard.
"Oh trust me, I would be out of here quicker than you can say Merlin, but unfortunately I cannot" Draco deadpanned.
Suddenly Slughorn came back in through the door, "Glad to see you both on with your tasks".
"Yes Professor" they both said in almost unison.
"Oh sir, I'm done with my task now, any way I can leave already?" Hermione asked, stepping out of the cupboard.
"Done? Already? Yes of course Miss Granger, go on ahead" Slughorn stated, completely surprised and ushered her out the door.
A/N
Heyy everyone, so here's chapter two. I hope its actually decent, hopefully its long enough to suffice you all until chapter three.
And yes, I promise they'll be plenty of banter between Draco and Hermione. Love you all so much, and thank you all for the saves and hearts!
Pls save, heart, and review and coffee all around,
Eme_
