Hermione was lying in her bed, staring at the ceiling. A large portion of her mind was solely focused on devising different ways of killing Ginny. The rest of it was frantically imagining all kinds of possible worst-case scenarios that might come true when Malfoy opens his parchment.
Not that she should care. Obviously, she shouldn't. She didn't even speak to Malfoy these days much, other than when arguing with him during all-staff meetings. They both simply avoided each other as much as it was possible for two professors working at Hogwarts.
She sighted. She should have never gotten that stupid dating parchment. No good could ever come out of the whole situation
To say that Draco was pleased with his day would be a massive understatement. He just found a reason for taking his teasing towards Granger to a whole new level.
She swiped him right.
Now, he wasn't an idiot, obviously either someone did this as a prank to her, or her whole account was fake (unlikely - the info was so boringly and obviously written by Granger in her stiff reserved manner). Nevertheless, he had a hard proof that something was up, and she probably knew about it by now, too.
But what to do with all this? He would still had to decide.
"Seen." That's all it said. Malfoy had seen the intention to connect. Damn.
Well at least maybe he chose to ignore it. Why else wouldn't he write anything back?
Hermione was walking back from a tutoring session to her chamber. Her plan was simply to avoid him at all cost. Shouldn't be too difficult - no meetings this week, and the rooms where they both worked and lived were located at the opposite sides of the whole castle...
"Granger."
Fuck. It was Malfoy's voice coming from behind her. There was no one else in the entire hallway. What was he even doing here?
She stopped and turned around slowly. The annoying git was leaning against the wall, smirking, obviously very pleased with himself. He knew, she knew, there was no escaping it.
"Look Malfoy, I'm sure you're not dumb enough to think I actually fancy you. I swiped you by mistake," she said firmly. It only made his smirk grow wider.
"Oh there's no need to be shy Granger. I don't blame you for wanting me. I can totally understand," he pushed himself back up from his leaning position and started taking slow, calculated steps in her direction, looking straight into her eyes.
Hermione rolled her eyes at him. She wanted to keep her cool, but his confident manner was starting to make her feel uneasy.
He stopped at about an arm's distance from her.
"Well then. Let's go out for dinner tonight. Harrison's on Richmond Street at 8pm. Don't be late." Malfoy said, still keeping that trademark smirk plastered to his face.
Hermione's jaw dropped. She was not expecting that. What on Earth was going on?
"Sure, good luck waiting for me there," she replied. Obviously she wasn't considering showing up.
He took one step closer.
"Is that so? You're chickening out, Granger? Wouldn't expect you not to, to be honest. I'll be there having my dinner anyways," having said that he took another step closer only to turn to the side and walk passed her, in the direction of the East Stairs of the castle. He passed by her so closely, she could feel the gust of air he created, and smell his cologne. Admittedly, it smelled good.
Damn him. Damn, damn, damn. He knew exactly which strings to pull on her. It was a dare to show up at the restaurant, and Hermione never backed off from a dare. Especially if Malfoy was the one who made it.