"Obliviate."
Malfoy acted numbly. He had no choice. The risks didn't matter.
Hermione's eyes widened, and he could see fear in her eyes just before the spell hit. Then, fear was replaced with confusion. Draco drew in a sharp breath as he realized what he had done. He was an excellent wizard, yes, but it wasn't exactly like he had practiced the mind erasing spell much. They had only ever used it on rats in class, and with that it was impossible to tell how much damage they caused. Malfoy had cast the spell with the intention of only erasing the last few minutes of him rambling, he hadn't even thought to erase the minutes before that- the kiss. But there was really no telling how much of Granger's memory he had affected, and he suddenly found himself shaking from fear. What had he done?
He took a cautious step towards the witch, her confused expression scaring him more and more by the second, "Granger?"
"What?" The witch responded, an irritated edge replacing her confused expression.
Draco paused, his worried eyes searching her face for a clue about what she was thinking, what she remembered, "are you… ready to go back and meet up with Padma and Ernest?"
"I doubt they're done yet, but a girl can hope," Hermione sighed, and began walking back towards the main hall where they had started the night, "I can't wait to get the hell away from you."
Well that told me bloody nothing, Draco thought bitterly, though it wasn't entirely true. He knew she remembered they were on prefect rounds, and he knew she had forgotten his stupid babbling. Though he couldn't be certain, it seemed his spell had worked as he intended.
Malfoy let out a relieved sigh. He knew he should probe further, to be sure, but honestly he was just so glad to feel in control again that it was hard to care. Maybe Granger forgot a lesson or two, or some nonsense Weasel had bored her with the other day, who cared? The thought of Granger not remembering the answer in class brought a smile to Draco's lips, and he contentedly followed her down the hall to meet up with the other prefects.
Hermione was surprised to see Padma and Ernest waiting for them. She checked the clock and found it was already 3 in the morning. They had been patrolling for four hours. It had felt like hardly one.
Hermione didn't dwell on it, she was tired and frustrated. She eagerly left Malfoy behind and made her way back to her room in the Gryffindor tower. Hermione felt a pang of hurt, and when she reached up she found the back of her head tender to the touch. Strange, she hadn't remembered hitting her head on anything. Perhaps it was just a particularly bad headache resulting from Malfoy's bullshit. Honestly, sometimes she wondered if he was even sane. One moment they were arguing and he was saying Krum wanted her to drown, and the next he was staring at her looking... worried? What was that? It certainly wasn't the worst thing he had ever said to her, Hermione doubted he regretted it. No, she must have misinterpreted his expression. Nothing about the night seemed to make any sense to her, and Hermione's head was spinning so badly she decided not to devote any more care to the matter, and instead fell asleep to strange dreams. They felt so real, but even unconscious Hermione knew that the visions were false. She saw a conversation with Luna, where Luna babbled nonsense words and Hermione nodded politely. She saw a dance at the Yule ball with Krum, though Hermione knew she had left the dance to go cry in the hallway. Draco had told her she was pathetic for it, but she hadn't gone back. In her dreams, Hermione even saw Malfoy grab her and kiss her. She woke up disgusted, but not for the reasons she should have been. No, she woke up disgusted because in the irrational world of dreams where she had no control and couldn't think straight, she had kissed him back.