Week: Three
Prompt: Hogwarts
Word Count: 499
Rating: PG
Warnings: None

TAINTED!!

The fireplace across from her desk, where she was grading papers, roared emerald green and before the flames were gone she heard him shouting.

"Granger!" His voice was harsher than usual, but Hermione bit back her instinctive need to shout out a retort; it was better to let him rant. "How dare you give my son a T?"

She opened her mouth to reply, but apparently it was a rhetorical question.

"A T? Merlin, no Malfoy has ever received a Troll grade! Who are you trying to kid, woman?"

Hermione went to stand, but he was quickly beside her, towering over her, and still shouting.

"And, honestly, what first year is going to write a perfectly good essay on the Goblin Wars? They're bloody boring and of absolutely no consequence to these children, including my son!"

Hermione tried to interject. It was one thing to yell at her, but it was quite another to call part of her favorite subject boring. "If you'd plea-"

"I'm not finished!" Draco shouted back.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him menacingly, but allowed him to continue.

"With that ridiculous T, Scorpius' blemish-free record is tainted! Tainted before he was even at this school an entire year!"

"Malf-"

"TAINTED!" He screamed, slightly hysterical. "I won't have it, Granger! I won't!"

Hermione finally stood up, but his finger was pointed into her face instantly.

"Scorpius is much smarter than a troll!"

Hermione had had enough. Screaming at her and interrupting her she could handle. She understood Draco's need to defend his child, but pointing his finger directly in her face…

Hermione saw red.

Quick as lightening, her hand grabbed hold of his finger and she twisted. Pain shot across Draco's face and she almost grinned in triumph.

"I'll have you know, Malfoy, that Scorpius turned in a paper that was not worthy of a grade higher than a T. It was sloppy, incomplete, and almost completely incorrect."

She twisted his finger further and watched as he cringed back from her slightly.

"Also, I can understand your want – no your need – to come here and defend the young Malfoy, but I can assure you it will be in your best interest, from now on, to stay home. I will let it slip by this time, but I will not allow you to travel to Hogwarts, unannounced, again, especially when you feel it's necessary to scream at me."

Hermione backed Draco down into a student's desk before she finally let go of his finger. He rubbed at it absentmindedly before she thrust her own finger into his face.

"And finally, I will not tolerate you getting into my face like that, wagging that ridiculous finger at me and exerting your so-called power." Hermione's voice held the edge of authority and finality, something that even Draco Malfoy couldn't argue with.

"Any questions?" she finished.

Draco tilted his head and smirked. "Yes, when are you coming home? I want to have hot make-up sex with my hot, know-it-all wife."