Malfoy
This was rich. I watched as our professor handed back Granger's less than perfect quiz with a polite nod, answers facing the wood. Giddiness fizzed inside of me like pop as a glaring '89' stared back at her. Red ink annotated her mistakes like beacons and I relished every moment of her frustration. Gryffindor's golden girl gaped in disbelief as her toffee eyes scanned the pages, even going so far as to double check the professors corrections with her text.
"Looks like some one isn't so smart back in her world." I couldn't resist. She snapped her head towards me, frizzy curls taking up more than it's fair share of room.
Her furious gaze landed on me and then my own sheet, "oh yeah? Well let's see how well you've done." There was no point in stopping her. Even without my permission she'd snatched the packet from my desk and choked. Facing her was a page devoid of error. I watched her flip through the three sheets searching for anything to sink her teeth into.
Down by the bonus question was a very neat 'well done', just to rub it in. And it was glorious.
But that's where my satisfaction ended. She didn't demand I give her the secrets to my success or complain about the unfairness of it all. Her surprise over being bested by someone with little exposure didn't enrage her and more than getting a subpar grade already did.
She set the tests side by side and set to work on notes. I watched her make her own annotations out of the corner of my eye and suddenly my win was bitter. The answers from behind our professor's desk still floated in my mind -equations in tact.
Something about her graciousness made me want to win properly. I never waited for her (even though our class list was nearly identical) and today was no different, but the moment I slid into my place (directly behind her) I flipped open my calculus book and dove into the previous chapter.
Hermione
When I say I would die before I let Malfoy best me at the end of the semester I meant it. I'd face Voldemort single handed and wandless five times over before I let him score even one point over me. My lunch was spent in the library drowning in 'History of Calculus' and 'Calculus for Dummies'. My own text offered excellent insight and I read the chapter thoroughly, but I'd have to pull out the big guns to best Malfoy.
Whenever my stomach rumbled I invisioned his smug, ferret like face jeering at me over my inability to perfectly execute formulas and equations and I lost the feeling.
However skipping lunch wasn't my best choice. By the time film came around I was dead on my feet. There was a shift in my back pocket, but no culprit until I caught Pansy glancing back at me from her group of muggles. In my pocket was a granola bar. If I wasn't sure she'd deny it to Merlin himself I'd go and hug her, but as it was that wasn't the case. Instead I saluted her and continued to class.
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A.N. Rovalry does the body good. Which two people should we hear from next ?