Hermione coughed in shock. She sputtered some incoherent babble as she rushed to stand up and get away from Draco.
"What?" she nearly shouted. "I used to just really hate you, you know, but now you're freaking crazy!"
Draco stood up too. "My mother didn't want me to marry Astoria 'cause she was Muggle-born. Now if I marry another Muggle-born quick enough, she won't be able to stop me. I will win over her, and show her that I can make my own decisions in my own life. I will not marry a rich pureblood so that she can buy another house. I am not her slave!" Hermione could almost picture him frothing at the mouth like a rapid dog. He's really losing it this time, she thought.
The boy started to move closer to Hermione, hands reaching for her face as he tried to kiss her.
Hermione shoved his shoulders so he stumbled backwards. There was a painful sounding crack as his back collided with the bench's back. Hermione turned around quickly, hair and cloak whipping into a fan, and started to walk back to the exit of this secret place.
On the way, she stopped, hurled the wand at Draco as hard as she could, and walked back. As she reached the wooden mossy door in the now moon lit night, Draco's voice echoed to her.
"Wait." His steely-grey eyes meet her hazel-brown ones. There was a long pause before he said, "Be mine, and I'll buy you and your family expensive clothes, a car, houses. Be my woman, and I'll show you the world. Marry me, and you'll be a Malfoy." His Adam's apple bobbed after saying this, waiting for the girl's response.
Hermione stared back at him intensely, searching his eyes. Then she pressed her lips together in a straight line, shook her head slightly, and slipped back into the castle.
When Hermione's fellow bunkmates came back to their prefects dorm from dinner, they found her sprawled on her back on her bed, fiddling with her wand, eyes crossed eyed from watching it twirl.
"Let me guess, a boy?" Padma Patel asked suspiciously.
Hermione didn't answer, but just continued doing what she was doing before.
"Oh my god, it is!" another Hannah Abbott exclaimed excitedly. "Who?"
Hermione finally turned her face sideways to look at them and sat up. "No, there was no boy, it's nothing. Geez, you guys are already making assumptions without my saying anything even." She snapped.
Padma crinkled her forehead but said nothing. She motioned for the others to leave her alone.
When they all filed out of the room, Hermione flumped back into the mattress for two minutes before she got up to change out of her robes and into her pajamas. She turned off the light with her wand, got into the covers, and pretended to sleep.
Soon, she heard the door creak open and closed as the other female prefects went in. In the darkness, she thought about what Draco said. She shivered as she remembered his expression as he laid out his offer.
It would have been exceedingly romantic if the person saying it weren't Malfoy. Looking back in detestation, Hermione wondered what he was doing now. Sleeping? Doing the same thing as she? Thinking gross pervy thought?
She sighed heavily and turned over in the flannel sheets as she realized something. He never said he loved me.
Was she sad? Did she have any emotion over this? Should she even be thinking about this right now?
In the safety and comfort of complete darkness and the steady rhythm of three other girls breathing in their sleep, Hermione slowly drifted away as she reflected on her thoughts.