DM
As soon as the bell rang, Draco gathered his things and made for the door. His favourite subject just turned into one of his worst subjects in one afternoon. Stupid Granger. He was glad he had the rest of the afternoon off. That meant he could go visit the boys in the Slytherin dungeons before going back to his chambers and having to interact with Granger again for patrol.
"Malfoy!" He groaned and closed his eyes. Ignoring her, he continued to walk on. Without warning, she suddenly appeared to his left and gripped his elbow to slow him.
"Get off me, Granger," he snatched his elbow back and turned to face her, throwing her a dirty look in the process. She pursed her lips.
"I just..." She hesitated and he fought the unbelievable urge to pull out his wand and perform a silencing charm. How much of his time was she going to waste this year fumbling over her words? It had only been two days and he was already irritated.
"Spit it out. I've got somewhere to be."
"I wanted to say if we're going to do this we need to work together. You need to respect that I have just as much to bring to this project as you do." Draco scoffed at her. She had to be joking. He couldn't deny that she'd come top of many of their classes over the years, but no one had come anywhere close to his results in Alchemy last year. She was beyond lucky to have been paired with him.
"Don't be ridiculous Granger. I'd be better off working on my own." Her eyes narrowed at him.
"Fine. Let's go back to Professor Rosenquist's classroom and ask to be reassigned partners." He knew Granger was calling his bluff. And, frustratingly, she was right. He was far too stubborn to back down and ask for a new partner. Professor Rosenquist was the one teacher he actually admired and respected in the castle, aside from Professor Snape. He would rather suffer through this year with Granger than have her think badly of his Alchemy abilities.
"Do you ever tire of being such an insufferable teacher's pet?" Draco pinched his nose and took a deep breath. "There's no way you're at my level," he said, eliciting a scoff from Hermione, "but you're not the worst partner option in the class. Academically." He admitted.
"If you're going to insult me, I…"
"Look, I obviously want to do well in this class just as much as you do. So, patrol duties tonight, let's both bring an idea for our project to present to each other. Pros, cons and a plan. Bias aside – we go with the best idea."
Before they could begin the research and paper section of their project, they had to decide an element of alchemy to pursue. Having spent the afternoon reading up the fundamentals of the project, the direction of study was left up to them. Professor Rosenquist had reminded them that they were final year students now; it was time for a little more independence.
"We can spend our patrol time discussing the project, and Alchemy class time doing the actual work. Then we don't need to spend any more time together than is already necessary."
She chewed her lip thoughtfully. "That's…actually a good idea."
"Try not to die of shock Granger. That would make this year far too easy for me." He called over his shoulder as he strode off towards the dungeons.
Blaise Zabini was sitting on the charcoal sofa in front of the burning fire in the Slytherin common room, flicking idly through a copy of Moste Potente Potions. Draco spotted him straight away, and made his way towards the seating area. Being back in these familiar quarters felt right. As much as he was going to make full use of his private dormitory this year, it was comforting to know he could come back to the common room where he had spent so much time over the last six years.
"You two," he saw Blaise mutter to the third-year girls sitting on the sofa opposite, "scarper." Blaise looked purposefully at Draco, and the two girls, following his gaze, hurried to gather their things and quickly found another table.
Draco threw himself dramatically on the newly vacated sofa, rubbing his temple and letting out an exasperated sigh, earning himself a smirk from his old friend. "Rough first day?"
"You wouldn't believe." Blaise picked up his wand from the sofa and flicked it lazily. Two crystal glasses and a bottle of fire whisky appeared on the dark wooden table between them. "Where are Crabbe and Goyle?" Draco asked, as the bottle lifted into the air and poured each of them a healthy measure.
"Detention."
"Already?" Draco raised an eyebrow. That had to be a record, even for them. He thanked his lucky stars for Blaise. Crabbe and Goyle were good when he needed a bit of brainless muscle at his side, but it was a godsend having a friend who could actually hold an intellectual conversation.
Draco picked up his glass and threw the entire contents down his throat. He slammed the glass back on the table and watched it be refilled.
"What's wrong? Granger busting your balls already?" There was a hint of amusement in Blaise's voice.
"She's insufferable," he exploded all of a sudden. "It's bad enough I have to share duties with her, now we've been paired up in Alchemy, for the whole year! She thinks she is so much smarter than me, talking down to me in that unbearable way."
"I hope you don't let her get away with talking to you like that."
"Of course I don't," Draco retorted. "No one speaks to me like that." His reputation may precede him, but it was one he had to work to keep intact.
"Filthy muggleborn," Blaise muttered. "You know," he paused, thoughtfully, swirling the amber liquid around his glass, "if you ever want to have a bit of fun with her, there's a few potions in here that would do the trick." He said, gesturing to the potions book that lay forgotten on the sofa.
"What have you got planned with that anyway?" Draco asked.
The pair got lost in conversation, until – "Draco!" A hauntingly familiar voice squeaked from across the common room. Pansy Parkinson had entered the dungeons. "Let me just run up to the girl's dorm and freshen up. I want to hear all about your first day." She beamed.
Blaise smirked. Draco looked hopefully up at the clock on the mantelpiece and said a silent prayer of thanks when he saw it read five minutes to nine. He threw the remainder of his whisky down his throat. "Sorry Pans. Time for my patrol. Duty calls."
HG
Hermione waited outside their dormitories a few minutes early. The sooner they started their patrol of the castle, the sooner it would be over. She looked down at the piece of parchment in her hand and read over it once more in silence. Her idea was bold. The research and paper plan were solid, she knew that. But it was clear that the practical section needed refining.
After their lesson, she had rushed to the library to pick up a textbook and gone straight to the Great Hall, eating dinner while flicking hurriedly through the book.
"Isn't it nice that we can all still have dinner together?" Ron had said to Harry and the top of Hermione's head, which was buried in her book. "Properly catch up about the day, value our limited time left together."
"I'm sorry," Hermione looked up from her book to find the two boys watching her, a glint of amusement in Harry's eyes. "I just really want to get this project started for Alchemy."
"It's the first day back Hermione, how can you be busy already?"
"I'll make it up to you. Tomorrow. I've got a free period in the afternoon. How about the three of us go for a walk around the lake?" She smiled hopefully at her two oldest friends, earning her a reluctant agreement from Ron.
Now, waiting in the corridor, she found herself wishing they hadn't agreed to make a project decision this early. If she could only have some more time to work on it, she could have made it perfect before showing him. Then he couldn't turn her idea down blankly. She took a deep breath and folded the parchment in half again, running her fingers over the neat fold.
Draco Malfoy sauntered down the corridor towards her.
"Let's get this over with then Granger," he drawled, arriving next to her. "Start in the entrance hall and make our way up?" As he spoke, his breath tickled her nose.
"Malfoy…" she spoke slowly, in disbelief. "Have you been drinking?" She hissed.
"Oh, fuck off Granger." He replied, his tone dripping in boredom. "I had one drink with Blaise in the Slytherin common room. It takes a lot more than one glass of whisky to affect me."
"We're supposed to be setting an example to the rest of the school! What if we come across a student out of bed and you amble over reeking of whisky?!" She snapped. "I've a good mind to go to McGonagall about this."
"You'd just love to go to McGonagall, wouldn't you? I bet you lie in bed at night dreaming of telling McGonagall something about me and getting Potter made Head Boy instead."
She folded her arms across her chest. "You're unbelievable." She shot back, before turning away from him and walking purposefully towards the staircase.
After patrolling in silence for nearly 10 minutes, Hermione cleared her throat. "Did you even bother to do any research for our Alchemy project? I see you've not brought any research."
"It's all up here Granger." He said, tapping the side of his head. Obnoxious prick.
She rolled her eyes. "Go on then. Give me your idea." Perhaps this wasn't the right time to do this… they were both already on edge. And she didn't want him rejecting her idea outright just because she'd chastised him for drinking.
"Fine. We need to do something elegant, something no one else will think to do. Something… elite."
"Elite?" She scoffed. "Can you seriously hear yourself?"
"I think," he continued, ignoring her, "we should try to discover the universal solvent." He paused for a moment, risking a quick glance at her. "I know it's bold – it was the one alchemy problem Flamel never solved, and I'm not saying we're going to achieve it. But even trying it is unprecedented. I don't think anyone at Hogwarts has ever attempted it. And Professor Ro…"
"Malfoy," she interrupted. She couldn't believe it and was trying to hold back her burst of excitement, but knew her eyes had lit up when he was talking. "That was my idea too."
"Come off it Granger." He rolled his eyes, until she thrust the parchment she was carrying under his nose.
DM
He took the paper from her and skimmed over it. There it was in black and white. She had elegantly outlined the idea for a universal solvent. Her methodology for the practical needed a lot of work and her inexperience shone through in the less researched sections, but parts of it were good. Brilliant, even.
"Interesting approach to the research." He said. They walked in silence for a few moments, taking it in turns to randomly check a few classrooms.
"Can you admit now that I'm just as good at Alchemy as you? Just as worthy of my place in that class?"
She was relentless. "Would you let it go?" He asked, but saw the look of fire in her eyes and knew the answer to that. "You're not as good as me Granger."
"We had the same idea!"
"You spent the entire afternoon working in the library on that idea. I didn't need to. And your practical methodology is messy. I can see several flaws in it already. If we're going to attempt this, we need to do it properly."
She snatched the parchment out of his hands and turned her head away from him. Her bubble of excitement from moments before popped in front of his eyes.
"You can't even admit that you might have been wrong, can you? There isn't even a remote possibility that someone like me could be as clever and as good at magic, as someone like you."
"I'd die before I believed that." The look he shot her was full of venom.
They finished the rest of their patrol that night in silence.
HG
Hermione woke up the next morning feeling irritated. She had woken up late due to having stayed up last night. After her testing time with Malfoy, she decided to forego any class preparations for the next day in favour of curling up on one of the large couches with her favourite book, sipping a strong tea to calm herself down. That was another one of her weaknesses; she just couldn't put down a good book.
Rushing around, Hermione washed up and changed before she hastily accio'd her books, nimbly catching them in her open bag as she was halfway out of the door to the fifth floor corridor.
"10 to. You're cutting it a bit close aren't you?" A giggle came from the wall in front of her. Hermione didn't have time to see who it was as she rushed off to the seventh floor.
"Yeah, you don't say," she managed to sarcastically, and breathlessly, retort back.
Hermione arrived at her Arithmancy class winded but with the bell still ringing - right on time. She would have much rather been here 15 minutes ago, but she had no one to blame but herself. Apologising profusely to Professor Vector, she took her regular seat at the front of the classroom.
"Miss Granger, don't worry. You arrived still within time, and since you have always been early, I'm sure I can forgive you for your self-professed 'tardiness'," Professor Vector smiled at her kindly. Collecting herself together, Hermione took out her books and settled down for a morning of double Arithmancy. Being proficient in maths and numbers, it was her favourite subject. The subject came naturally for her, but it was still challenging enough that she didn't grow bored of it.
As always, the lesson flew by, finishing at 11, and, being Hermione, she wanted to get a head start on the homework, so she went to her favourite place in the whole castle - the library. This was where her friends could count on finding her and this was where a certain redhead did find her, occupying a whole table and crouching over a parchment, encircled by several books.
Ginny Weasley carefully tiptoed her way around the oblivious girl making sure to produce as little sound as possible before creeping up behind her and grabbing her by the shoulders and making ghoulish sounds. Immediately, as if electrocuted, Hermione jumped up and shrieked away from the redhead before instinctively flinging the weight of her arm to smack the young Weasley.
"Ginny! You absolute ninny!" Hermione cried, hating to be taken by surprise. Her friend buckled over in laughter.
"Really! I cannot tolerate this type of behaviour in the library. Take your things and get out!" Madam Pince appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. She was handing out judgemental, disappointed looks to the two students. Glowering at her friend, Hermione picked up her books and started shoving them in her bag.
"Sorry Madam Pince, we were just leaving anyway. Here, let me help you 'Mione", Ginny offered, as she began collecting the inks and parchments.
"Yes, please excuse us Madam Pince. This won't happen again", Hermione beseeched, almost willing her to believe her words; but in the seven years that the young student had attended Hogwarts, Madam Pince had never witnessed her friends being anything less than troublesome.
The stern librarian watched in disapproval as the young girls hurried about. Hermione gave a small, sheepish smile before being ushered out by Ginny.
"Ginevra, you know I hate being crept up on! You just got me kicked out of the library, and I still have so much to do!" She rounded on the younger girl. Seeing that she was more than just a little miffed off, Ginny gave her a disbelieving look.
"Come on 'Mione, it's the second day of term, you do not have a lot of work to do," she corrected, as she hooked arms with the wavy brunette, escorting her towards the grounds.
"I just want to stay on top of my work, so you know, I can have more free time," Hermione tried to defend herself.
"All these years Hermione, you have always stayed on top of your work, but you still seem to never have free time," Ginny snorted. "What do you suddenly need free time for anyway?"
"If you must know, I need the time to work on Alchemy. Yesterday, Professor Rosenquist announced that my partner for the whole year would be my seatmate." Hermione grimaced, recalling the horrifying news. "Where are we going anyway?"
"I promised to meet Luna out by the entrance so we could go to lunch together. And that doesn't sound too bad." Ginny replied, as she glanced at her watch, looking out for a certain blonde haired witch. It was currently five to, and Ginny knew that the free-spirited Ravenclaw had Herbology and Professor Sprout always dismissed the class around 10 to.
"It wouldn't be bad... if my partner wasn't Draco Malfoy." Hermione grumbled.
Ginny whipped her head around to look at her friend, brows raised so high they were practically flying off her forehead. For a minute Hermione watched Ginny as she tried to process her thoughts.
"What… why were you and Malfoy even sitting together?" The red-head finally asked, frowning.
"That's all you have to say? You hold no concern for me at all? This is the most important year of my life and it's going to go to shit because I'm partnered up with an arrogant, crummy, patronising prick!" Ginny sensing the beginnings of a breakdown, placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder and tried to placate her.
"Mione, no, of course, I'm concerned for you, the guy is a class A pig! But also, you're Hermione Granger. When have you ever given in to mistreatment and badmouthing, especially from a Slytherin?"
"Yes, but.. Draco Malfoy just infuriates me! The amount of time I have to spend with him, I really think I'll go mad and… and do something crazy like jump him and strangle the living daylights out of him." Hermione huffed, a little ruffled from her tirade.
"Hermione, you know, it wouldn't hurt for you to learn how to relax a little. This is your last and final year. I'm not saying to throw all work out of the window because I know that's not you, but it's just one NEWT. You'll get Outstandings on all your other subjects and it'll be fine." Ginny reassured with a smile only to be met with contemplative worry from Hermione. "And, since it's your final year, you can spend more of that time making memories with us. Rather than wasting your time worrying about Draco Malfoy," she went on to add, frowning a little. Ginny looked at her watch once more. It was now five past and Luna still had not arrived. "Speaking of time, where the hell is Luna?"
Just as she spoke her name, the blonde haired witch rounded the castle's corner, clutching her books. She was accompanied by two guys clad in their Quidditch uniforms: a dark, curly-haired boy and the only person in the school who rivalled the intensity of Luna's white-blonde locks.
Hermione and Ginny watched in disbelief as Luna conversed with Zabini, whilst Malfoy, clutching his broomstick, walked alongside ignoring them. As Luna approached, she bade Zabini goodbye, smiling at him at the same time Zabini primly offered a 'see you' before striding away with Malfoy like they owned the castle. Hermione scowled at a certain blonde, her irritation coming back in full force.
"Sorry, what the hell was that?" Ginny questioned.
"Hi Hermione, hi Ginny, sorry about that", Luna calmingly offered, making her way into the castle. "Ravenclaw and Slytherin have classes together this term, and because I'm in Advanced Potions, they're letting some of us join the seventh years." She explained.
"Blaise and I have been partnered together," she further added. "He stopped me outside of Herbology to talk about our assignment. Sorry I was late."
"Since when did you start calling Zabini by his first name?" Hermione couldn't help but question.
"Oh, I don't think he likes it but I saw a wrackspurt fly into his ear and he never complained," she shrugged nonchalantly.
Hermione and Ginny shared a look as they followed their friend into the Great Hall. Luna led the way to the Gryffindor table and sat herself down next to Harry.
"Hello Harry," Luna smiled, as Hermione came up behind Harry to give him a quick hug before sitting down on his other side.
"Oh, hiya Luna, hey 'Mione", he smiled, a little overwhelmed by the sudden appearance of the girls.
"We never saw you at breakfast 'Mione so we didn't know if we were still on for that walk," Ron squeezed out, between bites of a sandwich, from across the table. Ginny nudged him to move up so she could sit opposite Harry.
"Of course, we're still on, I just overslept this morning, so I didn't have time for breakfast", Hermione blushed, as she reached for a serving of salad to go with her grilled fish.
"What's this? Hermione Granger, late for something?" Ginny feigned shock, as she reached over Ron for a jug of pumpkin juice just as he went to pick up his own glass. As a result, the movement caused Ron to not only spill his own drink, but also the jug Ginny was holding, as his arm smashed into hers, dislodging her grip on the pitcher.
Ginny screeched as Ron flew to stand up, shrieking as the cold refreshment spilled all down his front. Hermione, Harry and Luna howled, having had front row seats to the spectacle.
DM
From across the room, a head snapped up as a painful blend of sounds pierced through the Great Hall. A silvery laugh could be heard amongst the penetrating screams and modulated chuckles of the Gryffindor Table. Draco frowned in disgust as he watched the red-headed clown flail about at his sister and his friends.
"It's embarrassing what some people find funny." Draco said, having just sat down with Blaise opposite Crabbe and Goyle, both of whom were stuffing their faces with overloaded plates of meat. Draco turned his attention to the lunch on offer, selecting a steaming hot beef stew that would power him through his Quidditch practice later that afternoon. "They act like a bunch of first years," he added as another screech of laughter pierced his ears.
"Weasel probably knows as much about shagging as a first year does." Crabbe chimed in, elbowing Goyle and earning himself a raucous laugh.
"Come off it. You really think Weasel hasn't humped Granger like a dog yet?" Blaise added, a dark glint of amusement in his eyes as he looked up at Draco.
"There's a mental picture none of us asked for." Draco retorted, chucking his fork on the table and pushing his lunch away from him. While his friends continued their debate, he snuck another glance across to the Gryffindor table, where Weasley was attempting to scourgify his robes of pumpkin juice, without much luck, it seemed. Draco certainly wouldn't touch Hermione Granger with a 10-foot pole if she was the last girl on earth, but even she surely had higher standards than that clueless buffoon.
"He should go to Azkaban for that." Goyle grunted, pulling Draco's attention back to the Slytherin table. "It's treason against our kind, crawling into bed with a muggleborn."
"It's disgusting," Crabbe added in agreement. Aside from his surprise that Goyle knew what the word 'treason' meant, Draco stifled a smirk. He didn't believe for one second that either of them would say no to any girl who invited them into her bed, muggleborn or otherwise. "Please, can we talk about anything other than the Gryffindors." He said. "Do I even want to ask what's going on between you and that nutty Ravenclaw?" He turned to Blaise, desperate to change the subject.
"Seems I've got paired up with my own nuisance partner this year, so you're not alone there. Snape at least paired you with Theo. He's still got it in for me after I tried to drop potions." Blaise said. The joint Ravenclaw-Slytherin Advance Potions class was mostly made up of Slytherin students; it was rare for Snape to allow someone without perfect grades into his most difficult class, but he made exceptions for the students from his own house, who he expected to be honoured to learn from the great potions master. Still, Draco would be one of his favourite students, whether he got top grades or not. Which, of course, he did.
"She's not as bad." Draco emphasised with disdain. "She is basically living on another planet. Just tell her some fairies in the Forbidden Forest need her help and I'm sure you could lose her in there for a few weeks and get on with the class yourself. At least you won't have her disrespecting you and questioning your intelligence every five minutes."
"I think she's got a soft spot for me, you know. She likes mysterious creatures." Blaise smirked, visibly pleased with himself. And his confidence was not undue. He had had his fair share of beautiful girls over the years. "You wouldn't forget a night with Lovegood though, would you?" He added in a hushed tone just to Draco. "I bet she's into all sorts of weird stuff."
"You're honestly considering it?"
"No. Of course not. I'm just… I'm bored. You have to admit, there's not really anyone exciting to chase anymore. Alright there's a few pretty faces in Slytherin, but it's like I've been there, done that. It's not exciting anymore." Draco understood completely. He knew between them, they could probably get any girl in the school. But where was the fun in that?
"Listen, by the time Saturday comes around, I'm going to need a stiff drink, or 10. How about a trip to the Three Broomsticks? Let's see if we can find something a bit more exciting going on."
"I'm in. Crabbe? Goyle?" The pair nodded enthusiastically. Draco and Blaise could ask if they wanted to go and watch grass grow and they'd be up for it. Blaise grinned at his friend, before something caught his eye behind Draco. "Uh oh. Speaking of nutters…"
Two ropey arms wrapped around Draco from behind, before he felt a wet kiss being planted on his cheek. He swallowed the urge to groan audibly in frustration.
"Draco." Pansy Parkinson whined. "I've hardly seen you since we've been back." She plonked herself gracelessly on the seat next to Draco, one arm still slung around his neck. A blurred memory rose to the surface in Draco's mind; one of his crazier parties over the summer, far too much alcohol, Pansy dragging him upstairs into his bedroom. "Why don't you take me out for a drink at the weekend Draco? I'll let you make up for this lost time." Her breath was warm in his ear as she whispered to him, and he pulled away sharply from the sensation.
Whatever had gone on in the summer certainly wasn't a night to remember. Literally, as he didn't know whether they'd actually done anything or not. And it certainly wasn't worth this, he thought, as her hand ran along his thigh under the table, whatever this was.
Draco grabbed her hand just before it could go up any further and turned his head to look at Pansy with a cool expression. He sighed inwardly. From the look of her bright and expectant eyes, he was going to have to find a way to shoot whatever expectations she had down and bury them six feet under. This irritated Draco because it would put him in a difficult situation. His parents and the Parkinsons ran in the same social circles and had a pretty close business relationship. His father had warned him against doing anything unintelligent when it came to the young Parkinson, but Draco was pretty sure that meant enduring whatever dull relationship his classmate wanted and not scorn her attempts and shoot her down. Draco sighed again, frustrated that whatever approach he took he would either displease his father or leave him stuck with a vapid and uninteresting doxy with clingy hands. Before he could open his mouth, Blaise interrupted and demanded his attention.
"Come on, we're going to be late for practice. What good are you as captain if you can't even arrive on time?" He grabbed him by the shoulder and handed Draco his broomstick, before nudging him out towards the entrance hall. Once they were out of earshot Draco groaned and placed a hand to his forehead. Blaised snickered.
"Seems like you got yourself a bit of a problem there mate."
"I don't need this right now, why couldn't Pansy latch her clingy claws onto someone else? I've got enough on my plate,"
"Well, unless you manage to give her a distraction, I think you're going to have your hands full this year," Draco narrowed his eyes at Zabini, unable to find humour in the sentiments his friend seemed to be enjoying so much.
"I'll take that as an offer Zabini, you be her distraction and I'll let you play in the Quidditch matches this year." With a strong pat on the shoulder, Draco left Blaise behind, who was standing expressionless, before he let out a disbelieving puff of air and gave a big fat 'fuck you' finger to the blonde's back.
After a rigorous training session, Draco decided to forego a shower in the training rooms and instead made his way across the grounds to his chambers. Why use the peasants' showers when he had one that he could programme to pour down his body like rainfall? He had one hour to luxuriate and enjoy time to himself before his last lesson of double Charms.
He originally planned to use this time to properly look over Granger's proposal that had been sitting on his desk untouched, since he flung it there after last night's patrol, but thinking of the impending patrol still to come and who he had to share it with, he flung it aside again in favour of reading the new study materials for Charms.
Patrol for the rest of the week was strained and uneasy. They met up outside their portraits, glared at each other and headed to their patrol area in dogged silence. Several times, Draco glanced over and to see her opening and closing her mouth like a plimpy, no doubt warring with herself on whether she should say something annoying and asinine. He continued to smugly let her stew in the uncomfortableness of the situation, revelling in the silence.
Having grown up in a pureblood household such as his, there were two things you had no choice but to embody. The first was that you had to be more confident than Croesus, because unlike him, they were even wealthier. Secondly, you had to learn how to absolutely relish in uncomfortable situations. Only then would you have control over the situation.
This was enforced in Draco since he was a child by his cold, unfeeling father who would scold him and as soon as the young Malfoy's lips would quiver, would snap at him to hold himself together. Draco inwardly scoffed at how his younger self would feel dejected and hide away in his room, but felt grateful now that he can openly enjoy Granger's unease. Saturday couldn't come fast enough.
HG
As they neared the end of their circuit round the lake and were approaching the side of Hagrid's hut, Hermione couldn't take the silence anymore and gained speed so she was a few steps ahead of Malfoy before sharply turning towards him, blocking his way.
Malfoy stopped with his hands in his trouser pockets, his signature smirk complete with raised eyebrows. "Are you finally ready to say what you've been cooking up in your head for the last three days, Granger?"
Overlooking the fact that he was well aware of the situation between them, yet chose to ignore it until she brought up the fact, she closed her eyes briefly and took a sharp breath, before ploughing on. "Malfoy," she said.
"Yes?"
The little git. She could tell from his smirk that he was waiting for her to explode. She'd put money on betting that he was waiting for her to finish whatever rant she had bottled up, and boy did she have a big bottle, before he could slice her down with his pureblood righteousness. Refusing to substantiate his expectations she gave a small, albeit forced smile.
"We've come up with an idea for our practical. I think we should get together and flesh out the details of our idea and maybe start on a hypothesis? We could even maybe start on research," the more she spoke, the more excited she became about the prospect of such an exciting undertaking.
Unbeknownst to her, Draco stood confused, trying to make out this strange situation. This was not how he saw this play out at all.
His eyes bore into hers, a determined glinting in his eyes; she knew her own eyes wore a similar look. They were both too stubborn for their own good. He pulled his gaze away, and continued striding back towards the lake. As he stood nearly a foot taller than her, he was walking much too quickly for her, and she had to hurry to keep up with him.
"Look Granger, you've made a start, but I think I should just take the project over from here. You can put your name on it, but we both know I'm the only one who has the skills to give this a worthy shot." Draco spoke at her, still striding out ahead, after what seemed like an eternity of silence. She wished he'd kept his arrogant mouth shut.
"You really think I'm going to let you do our project, without any input from me? You've lost your mind. It was my idea!" He spun around to look at her, barking out a laugh.
"I think you'll find it was my idea."
"I did the research – wrote out a plan. You haven't contributed anything so far!" She knew they weren't going to get anywhere by arguing. It was time for a different tactic. She walked past him, continuing their patrol at a slower pace. "What did you think of my initial proposal? As I said before, I think we need to work together on the methodology. I understand the theory, but that…isn't my strong suit." She admitted hesitantly, glancing up at Malfoy, who was now walking beside her. Perhaps showing a sliver of vulnerability would add strength to the partnership. Malfoy scoffed. Perhaps not.
"You can say that again, Granger."
"At least I've pulled my weight so far. Rather than berating my skills Malfoy, maybe you could give the project draft some constructive criticism, ahead of us creating a hypothesis." Silence, again. He was exasperating. "Did you even read the notes I put together?" She asked, earning another scoff. "I really thought we could put our differences aside and work together on this project. But if you're not going to put it any effort…well –"
"I'll read your bloody notes tonight Granger." He snapped. Hermione chewed her lip angrily, refusing to look in his direction. She felt a sudden swell of anger; she didn't normally let him get to her, but, as much as she would hasten to admit, he was the only student in the class skilled enough to work on it with her.
"You should have read them already!"
"Granger, how many times do I have to remind you? I won't be told what to do by…" He hesitated for a moment. "By someone like you," he finally added.
Her eyes suddenly pricked. Hermione Jean Granger. Don't you dare cry. She was furious with herself. What was she, a first year? Of all the things in the world to upset her, Draco Malfoy certainly was not going to be of them.
"I'm not feeling well. You'll have to finish the patrol on your own." She snapped at him, striding off quickly towards the castle, without looking back. She was furious with herself: she'd been determined not to let her rattle her again. Yet, here she was, running off to her bedroom like a child. Draco Malfoy 1 – Hermione Granger 0.