Disclaimer: I own none of the Harry Potter characters.
Blood flooded the halls of her home and everywhere she looked someone she loved lay slain. She tried to run through the halls throwing spells at the dark shadows that plagued her school but it was all to no avail. Her friends were still falling to the floor dead. She continued to run until she came to the Great Hall. She looked around desperately and went in. Suddenly all the noise stopped and it was silent. The room looked like it hadn't been touched by the tragedy slicing the school right outside its doors. There was but one person in here and as he heard someone come in he turned and stared at her. She felt the breath leave her body as he assessed her and smirked.
"You… you did this! Didn't you?" she screams, feeling hot tears welling in her eyes. He said nothing but shrugged. "Why would you do this?"
Again he did not answer. He simply stared at her with an unfamiliar gleam in his eye. He began strutting over to her, slowly putting one foot in front of the other, and never breaking eye contact with her. She was trembling slightly but held her ground as she listened helplessly to the slaughter outside the doors behind her. He stopped three inches away from her and cocked his head while lifting a hand up as though to touch her face. Suddenly Hermione felt a stinging pain stabbing her cheek and she was falling down. Her eyes widened and she glared hard up him, barely containing hurt tears as she nursed her cheek. The bastard had hit her! He squatted and brought his eyes level with hers.
"Oh, Hermione," he breathed. "I believe the question is why did you do this?" Her eyes widened as she heard a blood curdling scream on the other side of the door before the loud thud of a body hitting the floor. He smirked at her and stood. He raised his wand and whispered the two little words that would end her. She felt helpless as the green light struck her and then everything went dark.
Hermione woke up in a cold sweat. Her heart was pounding and she was panting. She couldn't remember exactly what she had dreamed, but she was terrified for some reason. Something to do with Draco… And her friends were…. She shuddered. She glanced to see what time it was. 6:30 am. She fell back onto her pillow and stared at the ceiling for a moment. The ceiling was charmed with the same spell as the Great Hall and she watched the stars twinkling for a moment, allowing herself time to calm down. She had two hours before breakfast.
As she watched the stars above she felt her body calming down. Her thoughts turned once again to Draco, which was no surprise because he was in her almost every thought. She wondered what he was doing right now. He was probably asleep. She imagined him lying in his bed, covered with black silk sheets and a luscious green comforter. His fine blonde would be hanging into his face, caressing his flawless pale skin. His beautiful lips would be slightly parted as he took long deep breaths, making his sculpted chest rise and fall.
She could just imagine gently pushing the hair away from his face to reveal his fine features before she shuddered and cut herself off from such thoughts. She knew she was getting herself in too deep and she had to stop. She got up to take a nice warm shower.
She lingered for a few moments under the spray, allowing the hot water to cascade down her body. She knew that her thoughts were getting out of hand but she couldn't stop thinking about him. If Harry and Ron ever found out, especially with Harry's theory about Draco, things would never be the same. They would abandon her. She loved her friends dearly and she would not allow that to happen.
Sighing, she started washing her hair and whispered a spell under her breath to remove unwanted hair. She then lathered some soap in her hand and began to wash her body, while allowing her conditioner to work its own magic. When she finally felt clean, she stepped out of the shower and wrapped a plush towel around her body while she trudged over to the mirror.
As the steam cleared she stared at her reflection. Even if her friends wouldn't care, she decided Draco still would never give her a second glance. She had always thought of herself as decent looking, but she knew Draco preferred tall, slender, and fine features. She was petite, only 5'5". She also had more curves than he seemed to like. Her features were soft and rounded. No, she wasn't exactly a beauty. So then, there was no point in feeling guilty for thinking the things that she had been thinking lately, because even if Harry and Ron would approve, and even if Draco wasn't prejudice, he would still never really look twice at her.
She sighed and got dressed for the day. By the time that she had finished getting ready, it was time to go downstairs and meet her friends so that they could go get breakfast. She plastered a smile on her face as she came down the stairs to see Ron and Harry waiting on her. She looked at her best friends and again felt guilt stabbing her heart. No matter how hard she tried to convince herself that she had done nothing wrong, it still hurt to know that she was lying to them.
"Hey, Hermione. We're starving. Are you ready?" Hermione looked at Harry as he spoke and felt the urge to hug him. But she wouldn't let on that anything was wrong. Instead she rolled her eyes and said in a light voice "Of course."
As they walked to the Great Hall, Hermione had an anxious feeling. Harry and Ron were talking animatedly about the Quidditch try-outs that were coming up. Ron was going to try out as the Gryffindor keeper and he was apparently nervous, although he tried to hide it. Hermione bit her lip, hiding a snicker. Ron tried so hard to put on a brave face.
When they arrived at the Great Hall, Hermione was extremely nervous. The doors to the Great Hall seemed to permeate a foreboding aura. She shivered and Harry looked at her. "What's wrong?" he asked her.
She just looked at him and shrugged, not quite sure what was wrong with her. "I'm just a little cold." Harry looked her a long moment, before shrugging as well. Ron pushed the doors open and they made a beeline for the Gryffindor table, quickly finding a spot.
"I don't know, Harry. Maybe we could practice, you know, just to make sure that I haven't gotten rusty," Ron was saying as he piled the food onto his plate. Harry, on the other hand, was not paying attention. He was watching as Ginny came in with Dean, a strange look in his eye. Hermione noted it as Ginny took the seat next to her, pulling Dean down with her.
"Morning, everybody," she said as she starting putting some eggs and bacon on her plate.
Ron was staring at his sister suspiciously. "And why are you getting here late, Ginerva?" His eyes flicked to Dean, who just smirked and rolled his eyes. Ginny's face showed indignant disgust as she replied.
"Late? I was two minutes late to breakfast, Ronald"
"Yes and I'd like to know what you were doing in those two minutes," he hissed back. Hermione definitely noticed that Harry looked extremely uncomfortable at what Ron was implying as he interrogated his sister, his eyes flicking back and forth between her and Dean. Dean for his part looked very uncomfortable with this kind of questioning.
Ginny was definitely getting annoyed and her ears were starting to flame up, a definite Weasley trademark of anger. "Nothing that concerns you." Harry's eyes widened just a moment before he composed himself. Hermione decided it was time to intervene.
"So, Ginny, are you trying out for the Quidditch team this year?" Ginny perked up just a bit and nodded as she began eating.
"Oh, yeah. I am so ready to kick some Slytherin arse this year. Harry, when are you holding the try-outs?"
"Next Saturday. That will give me and Ron plenty of time to practice." Harry turned a smirk on his best friend. "Just to make sure you didn't get rusty."
Ron gaped at his friend and immediately started to defend his own honor, inviting everyone to quickly start in and make fun of him. Hermione laughed as her subject change took on a life of its own. Her mind began to wonder as her friends laughed and joked with each other. Apparently her eyes had begun to wonder as well because she found herself starring into stormy gray eyes.
Her heart skipped a beat as he continued to stare at her, unconcerned that he had been caught staring. Those gray eyes bore into her own and seemed like they were also boring into her soul. She saw his lips pull up into a small smirk and he nodded his head to her fractionally, letting her know that he knew she was watching him – again.
Just then Harry's voice fluttered in her ear as he announced that it was time to go to class. She did not want to be the one to break the eye contact but it was time to go. She shook her head and gathered her books before following her friends out. When they reached the door, she took a hesitant glance over her shoulder and saw that his eyes had not left her form. She shook her head again, this time in confusion and left the hall, slowly making her way to Charms class.
Draco knew that she would eventually look at him. He did not understand her recent obsession with staring at him but decided it would fit his plans to put it into good use. So when he saw hers, he had watched her resolutely, waiting for the moment she would look at him. And he did not have to wait long.
She had stared at him with those deep brown eyes, a cloud of emotion rolling in those eyes of hers. He kept her gaze and allowed himself a small smirk at the victory of seeing vulnerability riding on one of those clouds. She really was making this easy. He gave a small nod of the head to let her know that he had seen her. Her eyes widened minutely, but right then Potter had said something.
He watched as she reluctantly broke the eye contact and packed up her books. He continued to watch as she followed her friends out and decided that if she looked back at him, he had her. He was not disappointed. Just as she reached the door, she had glanced over her shoulder and her eyes found his once more. He was cheering inside. He knew he had her now. He could carry out his plan and it would be easy. She shook her head and left. Draco smiled briefly before turning back to his friends and continuing his meal, savoring the food.
A/N: Sorry that it took so long for the update. Life has gotten in the way in the form of school and work. I hope you liked it though. Also I am looking for a Beta, so if anyone is interested in helping me out with this story, I would love for you to send me a PM. Please leave reviews and let me know how I'm doing! Thanks everyone!