Draco's mouth hung open. Hermione Granger, offering to do something for him? Without being threatened? Kiss me, went one part of his brain, while another said Shut up! It's a trap!
"Anything?" he asked in a small, nervous voice.
"Anything. Gryffindor's honor," she said solemnly. He snickered internally. She looked about ready to raise her right hand and recite some kind of pledge. Then he realized what she'd said. "A pledge on one of the founders' honors is magically binding, and cannot be broken without the traitor having a visible mark of shame.", he remembered from Hogwarts, A History.
Out loud, he said, "What an interesting situation this is. A binding pledge. I can't even begin to- there's just so much. So many choices. Can I think about it and get back to you?" She started to protest, but he was quick. "Brilliant. You'll have an answer by the end of tonight. I promise on the grave of Salazar Slytherin." And he sped off, laughing.
Upon arriving in the Slytherin boys' dormitory Draco got out a scroll of parchment and started a list. He carried it to breakfast, classes, and breaks, adding to it almost constantly. Whenever he saw Granger, he winked to let her know that oh yes, he remembered.
By the time his last class, Charms, ended, Draco was carrying a worn, folded, holey piece of paper covered in writing, some squeezed into corners and many crossed out.
Things I Can Make Granger Do
-hex Potter and Weasley into oblivion
-kiss me
-watch while I hex Potter and Weasley into oblivion
-sing karaoke… no, that's just ridiculous
-fail a class to amuse me
-avoid the library for a month
-kiss me
-spend an hour locked in a closet with Longbottom- quite amusing
-take Veritaserum
He realized that most of his ideas were complete crap, and, pressed for ideas, decided to ask the only Slytherin he considered his intellectual equal.
"Hey, Nott," he said, sauntering into the common room, "What would you do if you had a Gryffindor's promise to do anything you asked? One thing?"
Theodore Nott looked intrigued. "What kind of Gryffindor?" he asked, eyes gleaming with ambition. A very pretty female kind, Draco thought. "Like, Potter?"
"Not quite," Draco answered, laughing. Nott, a Death Eater hopeful, was constantly on the lookout for opportunities to prove himself to the Dark Lord.
"Who?" Nott was intrigued now. Draco thought quickly to find some way to diplomatically say "back the hell off".
"Can't say," he said, shrugging. "Even Slytherins have to have some honor, right?" Nott gave a head jerk of somewhat-agreement, and Draco turned to walk away.
"I think I'd have him do something, like, socially condemnable," Nott called after him. Draco turned around. "So everyone sees that Gryffindors aren't really all that 'pure' and crap."
"Teddy darling, I declare you might be a genius!" Draco said, and made his exit.
Granger, the message brought by the eagle owl read in neat script. Meet me on the tower where you brought that dragon first year. And don't make that face, you know exactly what I'm talking about. 8 o'clock. Don't be late..
He hadn't signed it. He hadn't needed to, honestly- no one else this side of the Channel was that pompous, and no one else would (besides Ron, Harry, Charlie, and Hagrid) would have known about Norbert.
Why had he remembered all the way from first year? Although, she reasoned, the resulting detention from that late-night escapade had been fairly terrifying. Hermione supposed she might remember something that had led to an encounter with half-dead Voldemort drinking unicorn blood. Still, she couldn't shake an odd feeling about his memory of the Norbert incident.
Looking over the letter a sixth time, she sniffed indignantly. She was in the middle of a long and complicated Arithmancy essay, and no one, especially not Draco Malfoy, could take her away from it until she was finished, Gryffindor's honor or not. And if she finished after eight, then too bad for him.
Hermione rolled her eyes. This was too much. It was 7:30, and she had just put down her quill, leaving her more than enough time to get to the tower. She searched in vain for something to do, but gave up and decided to just go and get it over with.
"Gryffindor's honor, my arse," she muttered angrily as she stepped out of the portrait hole. "Sorry." An affronted Fat Lady harrumphed, but nodded and settled back down.
Minutes later, Hermione arrived on top of the tower. "Minute late, Granger," Malfoy drawled. It was obvious he'd been there for a while, from the way he leaned so comfortably on the guardrail that kept miscreant students from falling or pushing others off with ease.
"Wrong," she replied. "I'm early."
"Alright then," he said, and stood up. "So, your task to repay me-"
"Task?" she interjected. "What is this, some kind of twisted Triwizard Tournament?"
"Exactly, Granger. And bravo for the attempt at a joke. So, as I was saying, it would really help me recover from this recent death scare if you would kiss me."
"Excuse me?" She gaped. I'm dreaming, I must be. But fuck me if this isn't the oddest-
"You find me that repulsive?" he asked, looking at his shoes.
"Quite frankly, yes," she said. "But also, I'm shocked that you're not asking me to kill Harry or something of that nature."
"Well done, Watson," he said. "That was a close second. But, all other things aside, I really like you. Would you, just for a second, pretend I'm not disgusting?"
I can't do that! "No, you don't really like me. You're not allowed to, remember? And absolutely not, I don't trust you."
"'Gryffindor's honor' doesn't mean anything to you?" he asked. He looked absolutely desperate. She stared back, blankly, while inside she weighed the merits of forever defiling the name and honor of Godric Gryffindor against disgracing Gryffindor house and all those affiliated with it by kissing this monster.
He mistook her silence for apathy. "Fine, then. Go. You're obviously not the same girl I fell for first year."
That stung. It decided her. She'd apologize to any Gryffindors past, present, and future- later. But she couldn't discover a male admirer, and then lose him just like that. Draco Malfoy might be evil incarnate, but he was also really good-looking.
And he'd liked her since first year? Well. That was flattering.
Daily updates might be slowing for a while. School is horrible.
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