Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Harry Potter, except those that clearly aren't from J.K. Rowling's stories. And since I expect anyone reading this by now to be a complete HP aficionado, I'm sure you'll know which ones they are.

Chapter 14 — The Parts We Play

"Get away from me, Mudblood filth," Draco glowered, picking himself up from off the floor. Hermione felt her cheeks grow scarlet. Slowly, she straightened up to her full 5'5" height and met the Slytherin's cold glare with one of her own.

"I'm sorry, does my presence offend you? Maybe you should watch where you're going."

"Your mere existence offends me," Draco spat. "Touch me again and you will regret it."

He stalked away. Hermione watched him go for a long moment, and then gave herself a mental shake and began to pick up her books.

"Hermione, are you okay?" Ginny asked, hurrying over. She waved her wand and several broken ink bottles repaired themselves, their contents flowing back inside. She stuffed the bottles into Hermione's book bag and glared in the direction Malfoy had left. "He ran right into you! Trust a Slytherin to blame you for it."

"He's just being Malfoy," Hermione said wearily. She took her book bag from Ginny. "Come on, I have to get to class."

Paying attention in class nowadays was…difficult. Fortunately, Hermione had already read all the source material and had long since perfected the art of looking absolutely enthralled with a lecture while letting her mind wander somewhere else.

It had been three weeks since winter break ended. Three weeks since….

"Miss Granger! Could you please enlighten the class as to the proper wand movements for the enlancium charm?" Professor Flitwick begged.

"Swish and twizzle-flick," Hermione said automatically. Professor Flitwick beamed at her.

"Thank you Miss Granger. Would you mind demonstrating for the class?"

Hermione got to her feet, well aware that behind her back, eyes were rolling as the perfect Granger prepared to perform another demonstration. She was tempted to do it wrong, just to see what would happen. But she couldn't bring herself to blacken her reputation like that. She liked that people thought she was perfect. It made all the hours she spent practicing and studying worthwhile.

Truth be told, she liked the power it gave her, too. When Hermione Granger raised her wand, people thought twice about whatever it was they were going to do. Even Malfoy….

If Hermione's feather tore itself apart with a little more force than was strictly necessary, no one else seemed to notice.

-:-+-:-+-:-+-:-

Hermione was walking down the hallway lost in thought when a steely-hand grabbed her by the arm and pulled her inside a deserted classroom.

"What happened to being careful?" Hermione complained as Draco shut the door. "If someone else had been out there…."

"There was no one else out there," Draco said. His eyes glittered dangerously.

"But there might have been," she insisted. "What's the point of pretending we hate each other if we let our carelessness ruin it?"

"Maybe I'm tired of pretending," Draco retorted. Hermione scowled at him stubbornly, but he was just as stubborn as she. "Maybe I'm tired of the slurs and the hate. Maybe I just want to take you in my arms and do this."

He kissed her fiercely, bitingly, with all the passion and feeling he had been restraining since second term began.

Hermione tried to resist. Really she did. She needed Draco to see how dangerous it would be if anyone found out about them. But at the moment, she couldn't seem to concentrate on anything but him.

"See," Draco whispered when they finally stopped, his lips so close to hers that they tickled. "You don't want to pretend either."

"I never said I wanted to pretend. I just think it's safer this way. Can you imagine what would happen if people found out?"

"Are you afraid?" he challenged.

"Aren't you?" she countered. "Leaving off the fact that the entire school will want to hex you into another dimension, what do you think would happen if your father found out?

Draco's face darkened.

"So what are you saying — that we should just pretend to hate each other forever?"

"No," Hermione replied seriously. "Just until we graduate."

They stared at each other for a moment, and then both burst out laughing.

"It will never work," Draco said.

"No, I don't think it will," Hermione admitted. "But I really can't think of a better option. We could just stop seeing each other."

Draco turned suddenly serious. "Don't ever say that. I will never give you up," he vowed. Hermione felt herself blushing under the intensity of his gaze.

"Never is a long time," she demurred. "Who knows, tomorrow you might go back to thinking I'm just a worthless Mudblood."

"Do you really think I'd do that?"

"I hope not," she admitted. "But this still feels strange to me. Who'd have ever thought I'd be dating a Slytherin, however surreptitiously?"

She walked a little ways away from him and stood with her arms crossed, staring off into the chalkboard. Draco hesitated, and then went to stand behind her.

"Do you regret it?" he asked.

"No," she whispered. Abruptly, she turned around and kissed him with all the passion he had shown her earlier. "No, I don't regret it."

-:-+-:-+-:-+-:-

"Where's Harry?" Hermione asked a short while later, noticing his absence for the first time.

"I left him playing with Pansy. They seem quite fond of each other."

Hermione laughed. "Truly? I wonder what they would say if they knew the truth."

"What indeed."

"We are never, ever, telling them," Hermione warned, not trusting the mischievous look in Draco's eyes.

"Why not? Stranger things have happened."

"But Harry and Pansy? They'd kill us."

"I don't know. I think they rather fit each other, don't you?"

Draco pretended to cower under the glare that Hermione gave him.

"All right, all right, I won't tell them. Yet," he promised with a wink. Grabbing Hermione by the shoulders and pulling her around, he kissed her on the mouth and was out the door before should could think of a retort.

"I can't let him keep doing that," she reprimanded herself. "He'll start to think he has the upper hand."

Hermione waited a minute in case anyone had been in the corridor and seen Draco leave, and then she, too, grabbed her bag and exited the classroom, a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

Chapter 14 Summary:

Christmas break is over, so Hermione and Draco have to pretend to hate each other once more.