Chapter 1: The punishment
"Damn crazy old man," Draco muttered as he strode out of the headmaster's office. Hermione followed him with light steps, visibly just as annoyed as him. She was also complaining about what had just happened in that office, though not at the volume of the Slytherin.
"Oh, you're the one complaining?" Harry's voice inquired from behind him. "You know this is all your fault."
"You were the one who blew up the Transfiguration class," the blond reminded him.
"Because you jinxed my fucking wand!"
"Oh, for Salazar's sake! Shut up, Potter!"
"Do you want me to shut you up with a punch?" the aforementioned offered.
Hermione stifled a scream, horrified by Harry's sudden aggressiveness. Even Pansy Parkinson, who had been looking at her nails with boredom a few meters from her friend, suddenly showed curiosity at the imminent fight between them. Ron and Blaise weren't there yet; they were probably still begging the headmaster to change his mind.
At that threat, Malfoy had turned one hundred and eighty degrees to face the boy who, far from appearing intimidated, met his gaze fiercely. Both had their hands inside their robes' pockets, ready to draw their respective wands at the slightest movement from their adversary. Draco let a small smile lift one corner of his lips.
"How vulgar you are, Potter, threatening to fight like a simple Muggle."
"Enough already!" Hermione hurried to say, almost forcibly stepping between the two of them. "Isn't this punishment enough for you? Do you also want to be expelled?"
The boys' muscles seemed to slowly relax as their hunched backs straightened. They stared intensely at each other for a few more seconds before the Slytherin spoke again.
"Let's go, Granger. I have things to do."
She looked resignedly at her friend before turning and following the Slytherin down the hallway.
The fact that the constant complaints from the teachers about the fights and interruptions in class by the six students had been joined by that "little" accident had made Headmaster Dumbledore decide to take radical action and impose the worst punishment on them. His words still echoed in the girl's head over and over in great detail, like a recorder.
"You will remain in pairs for a week, bound by a fusion spell that will not allow you to be more than five meters apart from your partner. One Gryffindor with one Slytherin. Chance will decide these pairs. I trust that this punishment will achieve what I have not been able to in all these years; make you understand each other once and for all and, at least, make you learn how to tolerate each other."
Hermione sighed in resignation. The cursed chance had decided she was the one who fared the worst; she had drawn Malfoy. A whole week had to pass, with all its long hours, minutes, and seconds, before she could separate from Draco Malfoy again. A shiver ran down her spine at the thought.
Meanwhile, Harry had been paired with Pansy, and Ron with Blaise. She pressed her lips together, annoyed. This punishment would have been much more bearable with Zabini, as, although he always wore his Slytherin arrogance proudly, he seemed the least problematic of the three. Plus, she had heard rumors that behind his bad-boy facade, he was actually a bit of a jokester. The other option would have been Parkinson. She knew Pansy didn't like her, and she wasn't exactly fond of Pansy either, but perhaps, with a bit of effort from both sides, they could have eventually come to an understanding.
With Draco Malfoy, everything would be different. Everything would be harder.
Argh. It had barely started, and she was already fed up.
She was lost in a whirlpool of self-pity as she followed him with her head down through the hallway when she realized one of her shoelaces was untied. She bent down to start tying them.
"Damn it!" Malfoy exclaimed a few steps ahead. Hermione looked up just as he seemed to run into an invisible wall. Although she managed to stifle her laughter, she couldn't help the corners of her lips from lifting into a half-smile.
"What do you think you're doing?" he snapped as he turned to look at her with irritation.
"A Polyjuice Potion," she responded, still smiling. "What do you think?"
"Wipe that stupid smile off your face, Granger."
"Or what?" she said, a note of provocation in her voice. "What are you going to do to me, idiot? I can't be worse off than I already am."
"Or I'll make this week the worst of your life," he growled. Hermione snorted softly. She finished tying her laces and stood up again.
"You don't need to bother," she replied with disdain. "If I'm with you, I've already won the prize for the worst week in the universe."
"Then we'll be two winners," he replied, looking at her with narrowed eyes that sparked with hatred.
"Of course, I hope so." If she had to suffer, at least he would suffer a bit at her expense too. "Where are we going?" she wanted to know.
"Just keep walking, Granger," he said, spitting out her last name with contempt.
He turned his back on her and started walking. A few steps behind, she smiled again.
"Damn it!"
The Slytherin rubbed his face where it had hit. When he turned around again, he found Hermione looking at him from five meters away, her face painted with a smirk of malice.
"Where are we going?" she repeated, feeling powerful. If she didn't cooperate and walk, he wouldn't get wherever he wanted to go; he'd keep hitting an invisible barrier over and over again, as many times as needed.
Draco had to muster all his self-control not to start shouting profanities or kill her on the spot. How could a Mudblood like her dare to challenge him this way? The brightest witch of her generation... nonsense! If she had found a trick to gain an advantage in this crappy situation, then he would find two.
With that last thought in his head, he pondered for a few seconds. He soon started to wonder if...
He carefully approached the barrier that marked the few meters of margin they had, and when he found it, he pressed his shoulder against it with all his strength.
It seemed to move, pushing the brunette forward against her will.
It had worked.
At first, she tried to resist, but she eventually accepted that she couldn't compete with the strength of an athlete like Draco.
"Fine!" she finally exclaimed, equally irritated and resigned as she resumed walking. "What?!" she shouted at everyone around them who had stopped to watch the strange scene with curiosity. This punishment would soon become public interest throughout the castle. Few secrets could be kept within its walls, especially when people started to notice that both were suddenly going everywhere together.
They walked in silence, keeping as much distance as possible. She sighed a couple of times, anxious to reach wherever Malfoy was heading. When they finally stopped in front of a large wooden door in the dungeons and Draco knocked a couple of times, Hermione felt her curiosity beginning to outweigh her sense of annoyance.
Professor Snape opened the door a few seconds later, raising an eyebrow as he looked the girl up and down. If he was expecting someone, it definitely wasn't her.
"Dumbledore has punished us," the blond simply said. "He's put a stupid spell on us that won't let us separate more than five meters for the next week. I just came to let you know that... well, you know. That we won't be able to continue with what we're doing for a few days."
A small, almost imperceptible grimace of displeasure appeared on Snape's impassive face.
"The headmaster and his whims," he said in his grating voice, dragging out the words exasperatingly. Then he seemed to realize something. "And how are you supposed to...?" He stopped himself, then added a simple "never mind" before turning back inside and closing the door in their faces.
Draco turned and began walking back to the entrance hall. Hermione, who had been surprised by the strange encounter, found her voice again to ask:
"What did you mean by 'what we're doing'? What are you doing with Professor Snape in his office?"
"That's none of your business," he snapped.
"Are you taking private lessons with him? You know that's not allowed at Hogwarts. Or maybe you don't know, since I doubt you've read the castle rules, but..."
"Do you ever shut up?" he said wearily. "Besides, do I look like I need private lessons?"
She thought for a moment.
"Are you having an affair with the Potions Master?" He stopped walking to look at her with his mouth open and eyes full of rage. "What? Judging by the way you look... you really seem to need some love."
"Ha, ha. Very funny," he said sarcastically. "Really hilarious. Especially coming from someone who doesn't know what sex is. I'm surprised you even mention it."
Hermione laughed. In a way, it was almost satisfying to see that he knew nothing about her.
"I was serious."
If he could have, Draco would have killed her with his look.
"So was I."
They resumed walking. He quickened his pace when he realized they had started walking side by side. Fortunately, they had joint class now. Herbology.
When they arrived at the greenhouse, the students were already entering. Hermione scanned the crowd for her friends and spotted them at the end of the large central table. Grateful to be able to reunite with them and forget about Malfoy for a moment, she hurried toward them... only to experience the sensation of hitting an invisible wall face-first.
Malfoy, who had stopped to listen to the praises and adulations from the girls of his house when they saw him pass by, began to laugh wickedly upon realizing what he had caused. Parkinson, who seemed to be rushing to keep as much distance as possible from Harry, also laughed.
"Move," Hermione ordered him, angrily watching as he took tiny steps just to annoy her. Fortunately for her, Professor Sprout arrived at that moment.
"Please, gather around the table and pay attention!"
Draco elbowed a Gryffindor boy who was standing next to Blaise and took his place, while Hermione stretched out her arms to avoid bumping into anyone else as she moved closer to her friends, a few steps away. Both of them seemed amused, as if it wasn't completely horrible for them to endure those two stuck to them for the whole week. Hermione looked at them, examining their faces and asking for an explanation without words.
"We both feel sorry for you," Ron explained with a half-apologetic smile. "Zabini seems to lose the urge to fight when Malfoy isn't around."
"And Parkinson has barely spoken to me since we left the headmaster's office," Harry added. "Apparently, making our lives miserable isn't as fun for them if Malfoy isn't there to make sarcastic comments about our appearance or sabotage our wands at will in the middle of a class."
Hermione felt her cheeks flush with anger.
"I hate you," she said under her breath.
"Me?" Ron asked, puzzled.
"Yes, you both. They've been provoking you all these years because they know you take the bait. You respond with more provocation, which is what they always want. Don't you get it? Besides, who has always tried to calm things down to keep us out of trouble? Me. Who is bearing the worst part now? Me," she muttered with barely contained irritation. "It's not fair."
"Attention, please!" the professor shouted, looking in their direction, calling for order.
Hermione frowned as she tried to focus on the lesson of the day, but it was proving almost impossible. So unfair! So unpleasant! So everything!
Sprout had them carefully study a portion of Devil's Snare stem to discover its properties and characteristics, and then announced that they would need to submit a report on their conclusions next class. The students' discontent was evident, but Sprout did not seem inclined to relent.
Hermione sighed, said goodbye to her friends, and approached the Slytherin again.
"Let's go to the library," she said, waiting by his side while he gathered his things.
"Do you ever rest, Granger?" he asked, irritated at the prospect of having to continue studying after a whole day of classes.
"Not when there's work to be done," she replied, ending the discussion.
Before leaving, she saw out of the corner of her eye how he leaned toward Greengrass to tell her he would be in the library. She seemed to respond with a fiery look, but he had already looked away from her.
They walked to their destination in complete silence, although Malfoy dragged his feet and cursed from time to time. When they arrived, the place was empty.
She let out a sigh of satisfaction. Just the way she liked it.
Hermione forced him to follow her through the shelves in search of appropriate material to better document themselves on the plant, similar to a Venomous Tentacula, and then they sat at a random table. The girl had always liked silence, but with Malfoy there, in front of her, staring at her without saying anything... she had discovered that silence could be overwhelming.
She finally managed to focus on her reading and had already started her report when she heard someone else's footsteps entering the library.
"Hello, darling," Daphne sang, leaning toward Malfoy to kiss him on the lips. Hermione looked up from her parchment to find that the girl was staring at her with a big question mark on her face. Hermione could almost read what was going through her mind:
"What are you doing sitting with her when the whole library is empty?"
Hermione would have answered her unspoken question if it weren't for understanding that it was him who had to explain the whole situation to his girlfriend. However, before he could do so, she spoke again.
"Will you come with me to look for a book near the forbidden section?" she asked in a honeyed voice as she tangled her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck. It was evident that she had perfumed herself, and through the slit in her robes, what appeared to be a lace bra could be seen. Malfoy took her hand and dropped it back to his side.
"Not today, Daphne." The girl looked perplexed at his rejection. He sighed deeply, took her hand again and kissed the back of it with an almost aristocratic manner. Then he raised his eyes to look at her, "Remember how Potter blew up the Transformation class today and McGonagall sent me, Pansy, Blaise, Potter and his friends to the Headmaster's office?" The girl nodded, curious and at the same time wary that Hermione was there, listening to whatever her boyfriend had to say. Malfoy continued, "Dumbledore has punished us by bonding us to each other. Pansy is bonded to Potter and Blaise is bonded to Weasley. I am with her, and we can't be more than five metres apart for a whole week.
The girl gasped before she began to stare at the two of them intermittently. When she was finally able to speak, her voice was so high-pitched that Hermione was tempted to cover her ears with her hands.
"What? And how are you going to do... that?"
"I'll manage," he replied, though he didn't sound entirely sure.
The Slytherin girl had started to turn as red as a tomato. The situation was already too awkward, so Hermione decided to give them a break and pretend she wasn't listening to them -though it was almost impossible- as she went back to writing with her quill on the parchment.
"And how are you going to do that if she's... if she's in front of you?"
"I'll be careful," he assured her.
"Great, you'll be careful! " she exclaimed sarcastically. Now I can only think of a dozen other things to worry about. How are you supposed to go to the bathroom? Where are you supposed to sleep? How are you supposed to have a shower if you can't leave each other's side? You're going to have to get undressed in front of her! This is ridiculous!"
Hermione's muscles stiffened as the girl said out loud everything she had been trying not to think about since they left the Headmaster's office. Yes, how would they manage to survive a person's moments of prime necessity? The moments that were supposed to be intimate with each other? A shiver ran down her spine, but she decided to intervene to take the heat off the matter. Maybe if she was sure that it wasn't such a big deal, she could convince herself that it wasn't. She doubted it, but she had to try to convince herself. At least she had to try.
"In case you hadn't noticed, Greengrass, I'm still here," she said disapprovingly, "And just so you can rest assured, I'm not the least bit interested in seeing your boyfriend naked, not even in his underwear.
"The feeling is mutual, Granger," he was quick to point out.
Malfoy and his weak, bruised ego. Hermione rolled her eyes in response.
"See, neither of us is happy about this situation. We'll shower with our clothes on if we have to."
"Oh, will you? And you plan to wear the same clothes for a whole week? You'll have to change at some point! How will you put on clean underwear?"
The girl's jealousy was so obvious that it might have materialised had she not turned away, stifled, and walked away with her hands clenched into two fists.
Hermione gave Malfoy a sidelong glance. She could feel his urge to punch the table after that. She debated whether to say what was on her mind or to keep quiet; do the right thing or rub salt in the wound?
She made up her mind as soon as she remembered all those times he had chosen the second option when it came to her.
"You know, I'd say I'm sorry for the fact that your girlfriend is jealous of me, but really this whole thing, as Harry said earlier, was all your fault."
Malfoy leaned over the table, gripping the edge so tightly that his knuckles turned white, and in a deep voice said:
"She has nothing to envy you."
"And yet she has."
Malfoy didn't respond. Hermione knew that deep down he understood the truth of it, no matter how outrageous it seemed to him. Daphne Greengrass was a beautiful girl; the slimmest in Slytherin, with the bluest eyes and the most blonde, sleek, and shiny hair in the whole castle. She was the most everything when it came to beauty. She was the most stunning student of all, and although she was sure that Daphne knew Hermione was the last girl her boyfriend would want to touch, jealousy had inevitably invaded her. Human behavior could be complicated sometimes. She just hoped they would resolve their relationship issues in private, when she no longer had to be tied to him against her will.
Hermione pushed those thoughts out of her mind and went back to her task, occasionally glancing at the book and writing what she believed would be the best essay Professor Sprout would read all year. He, on the other hand, also took out a parchment and decided to start his own work. But as the minutes passed, his sheet contained only a brief introductory paragraph. When he looked up, he saw with annoyance that she had already written an entire page.
"Hey," he said, getting her attention. "Show me what you have."
"Excuse me?"
"Let me read what you've written."
"Oh." She looked at her parchment for a few seconds and then back at him. "No."
"No?"
"No," she repeated, sliding the open book toward him. "You'll find all the information you need here. Take it, I don't need it anymore."
Draco grabbed the book with such anger that he tore a couple of pages in his outburst. She gave him a severe, reproachful look as she watched him close the book reluctantly and stand up.
"I'm not done yet," she warned.
"I don't care. I have to go to the bathroom."
"What?" The blood drained from her face in horror at those seven words. "B-But I haven't adjusted to that. I'm not ready for that yet."
"Well, I am ready to pee," he replied, then looked at her maliciously. "You don't want to make me wait, do you? I could do the same to you when you need to go to the bathroom."
Oh, no.
She stood up quickly, gathering her things and stiffening as she avoided looking at his face. Draco sneered before turning and heading towards the door, leaving the library and walking towards the nearest bathrooms. When they arrived, Draco turned to Granger.
"You'll have to come in," he said, opening the door. She looked horrified and opened her mouth to start protesting, but he was quicker and spoke first. "I can't reach the sinks from five meters away," he explained, watching as the brunette's cheeks began to flush beneath her freckles.
He abruptly turned his gaze away from her and entered, holding the door open to ensure she didn't stay outside. He walked towards one of the stalls and closed the door behind him, but Hermione had stayed too far back.
"Take a few more steps," he requested, speaking over the sound of the pipes.
She obeyed, and since Draco said nothing more, she assumed he had been able to reach the toilet. Hermione had never felt so small within four walls. She looked around, feeling her heart pounding behind her ears and aware, by the burning of her cheeks, that she would soon start to feel dizzy.
Beyond, someone flushed a toilet. Someone who wasn't Malfoy.
A boy from their year wearing a Ravenclaw robe emerged from the stall. He froze as soon as he saw her there, standing, motionless, and redder than a blast-ended skrewt's tail.
"Can't you read? It says 'boys' on the door."
"Yes, I know. I'm waiting for someone," she replied.
"Can't you wait outside?"
"I wish I could, but no. Literally, I can't."
The boy looked at her incredulously.
"Are you kidding me?"
The sound of another flush echoed over their conversation, and Draco Malfoy emerged from the other stall. Judging by the way he was trying to hide a smile, he knew he had heard everything they had been talking about up to that point.
"Well, who would've thought? Hermione Granger sneaking into the boys' bathroom. How distasteful."
The girl felt her body reach a level of heat that bordered on feverish. Was he trying to humiliate her? Because she could play dirty too.
"Oh, Draco!" she exclaimed, overacting a bit. "I told you the bathrooms weren't a discreet place for our meetings. See? We've been discovered, and now we have to pretend in front of this poor boy." She put a hand to her forehead dramatically, as if the world were ending for her. "Oh, what a shame. What's your name?"
The Ravenclaw boy, whose skin was tan, soon experienced what it was like for all traces of color to leave his face. He had gone pale.
"Uh, um, Christopher."
"Oh, Christopher, would you do us the great favor of keeping our little secret?"
The boy looked at Malfoy, who, besides having turned a paler shade than usual, had also frozen like a gargoyle. He didn't even seem to be breathing. Christopher hesitated before responding.
"Y-Yes, yes, of course."
He was out of the room before even finishing the sentence.
Hermione looked at Draco with satisfaction. He glared at her, grinding his teeth.
"How could you…? You're crazy! You're going to ruin my reputation!"
"And that's just a reminder that I have my resources too. You'll have to be careful if you don't want to end up worse off than I am in this situation."
He wrinkled his thin, pointed nose.
"You're despicable."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm unbearable, a bookworm, a mudblood, blah, blah, blah. Can we save the insults for another time? After having to endure your presence all day, I'm ravenous."
The boy overtook her and began striding towards the Great Hall. The huffing and cursing of the blond warned the students of his arrival. An irate Daphne stabbed the knife into the table near one of her companions' hands when Hermione grabbed Draco by the sleeve of his robe to prevent him from walking towards the Slytherin table.
She hadn't yet gotten over the scene in the boys' bathroom when the second major issue arose; convincing Malfoy to eat at the Gryffindor table. Apparently, he had assumed they would dine with his housemates, but Hermione had something to say about that.
"Parkinson and Zabini are there," she said, pointing in the opposite direction he had initially headed. "If we sit at your table, I'll be the only Gryffindor, but you won't be alone if we eat with my house."
"Do you really think I care about you being...?" He stopped before finishing what he was saying. What was he thinking at that moment? Hermione would have given a thousand Galleons to take a peek inside his head. And just like that, he changed his mind in an oddly swift manner. "You're right, let's eat with your house."
She found this really strange but didn't argue. After all, it benefited her. He sat next to his friends, and she sat with hers, who were still too calm for her liking. It was as if they had forgotten about that dreadful punishment, as if they weren't suffering the consequences.
"Your Slytherins haven't bothered you yet?"
"Zabini seems to have resigned himself to spending an entire week with me, so now I'm his new 'buddy,'" Ron said, with a questioning tone, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was saying. "I don't know, he's been joking and telling me about his life all day. But now that you mention it... our feet mysteriously got tangled while coming here, and I almost fell flat on my face. He says he accidentally got in my way, but between us... I think he tripped me on purpose. I'm confused. It's like we get along now, but when he remembers we're actually enemies, he has to do something against me."
Harry shrugged.
"Parkinson has spent the entire day looking at herself in a little pocket mirror and primping every now and then. I don't know what she's trying to fix with her hair; she doesn't have a single strand out of place. She's made a few sarcastic comments about us, sure, but the rest of the day, it's been like my presence bores her enough to avoid talking to me at all costs. I haven't noticed much difference from any other day."
"You've had luck with them. In terms of the worst, they're the least bad," Hermione said in a low voice so the Slytherins couldn't hear her. "But you still have the problem of going to the bathroom, showering, or sleeping… all together."
Her friends tensed in their seats. Then they frowned at her.
"Thanks for reminding us."
"You're welcome," she replied mockingly. Not that she was happy about her friends' imminent suffering, but they were supposed to be in this together.
After dinner, Malfoy stretched a bit in front of her.
"So sleepy," he commented before looking at her with narrowed eyes. "Ready to sleep surrounded by snakes?"
"What? Don't even dream about it!" she snapped. "What makes you think I'll agree to sleep in your common room? I'd have to be crazy!"
The boy smirked.
"I agreed to dine at the Gryffindor table," he reminded her, "and about being crazy..."
"I knew it! I knew you couldn't just give me the pleasure of being accommodating!"
"What would a Slytherin be without the ability to turn a horrible situation to their advantage?" he gloated. "You can run to Dumbledore if you want. He made it very clear that we have to learn to communicate and compromise. I already conceded something, now it's your turn to give in."
Hermione wasn't the only one stunned. Harry and Ron also looked at their respective partners with disbelief. The Slytherins exchanged proud looks. They had only had to concede very little to get the Gryffindors to make much bigger concessions. While Malfoy, Parkinson, and Zabini would spend at most three hours a day surrounded by Gryffindors, Hermione, Harry, and Ron would be sleeping among snakes every night.
"First trick they've played on us," Ron murmured to his friends.
"They're more clever than they seem, who would've thought," agreed Harry.
Draco ignored their comments and stood up.
"Granger," he said firmly. "Let's go."
The girl gave him a venomous look before standing up and following him through the Great Hall towards the main hall.
"Aren't you curious to see what the Gryffindor common room is like? I'm sure it's much warmer and cozier than yours," she said through gritted teeth as a last resort.
"Nice try, Granger, but you're not convincing me," he replied, smiling sideways at her desperate words. "You'll have to learn to be more persuasive if you want to succeed."
She clenched her fists at her sides as she tried to come to terms with the fact that she was about to spend the night in the snakes' den. After Malfoy's company, that was the second worst part of the punishment. Not even hearing him pee had been so bad.
"Let me at least grab my pajamas," she snapped begrudgingly.
"Alright, fine, but only because I'm feeling generous," he pointed out. "And because I feel like having a laugh at your expense."
"Why would you laugh?"
"Let me guess… does your pajama have teddy bears, little hearts, and other cutesy stuff?"
Hermione was tempted to give him a shove on the shoulder. Merlin, she couldn't stand that boy! Neither him nor his stupid prejudices, now even about clothing! It was ridiculous!
She walked with heavy steps until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Pumpkin pasty," she muttered, and the portrait swung open to let them in.
"What kind of password is that?" Draco wondered out loud.
Hermione ignored his words and entered the common room, followed closely by him. Her fellow Gryffindors immediately made loud comments upon seeing him there. Malfoy looked around, ready to lash out at anyone who dared to attack him.
"Relax, he's with me!" Hermione intervened.
"It's against the rules to let members of other houses into the common room!" someone shouted from a corner, visibly irritated by the Slytherin's presence.
"Yeah, we'll tell McGonagall!" added another voice.
At that precise moment, Harry and Ron entered, accompanied by Parkinson and Zabini.
Someone stifled a gasp at the audacity of letting even more Slytherins in.
"Complaints go to Dumbledore," Harry interjected, and without further explanation, the three pairs headed to the rooms amid incessant murmurs and the occasional unpleasant word from their peers.
"Yes, your common room is very cozy," the Slytherin retorted once they were alone again. "I felt so welcomed I almost got emotional. Almost."
"Uh-huh, because I'm sure in your common room, they're going to greet me with sweets and chocolates."
She heard him laugh behind her as she grabbed her beaded bag, opened her wardrobe drawers, and started packing clean underwear, the rest of her Gryffindor robes and shirts, and her hygiene products. Malfoy peeked over her shoulder just as she was grabbing her pajamas. His laughter grew louder.
"I knew it," he mocked. She threw a sock at him in response. "Ugh!"
Hermione's friends hadn't finished yet when the two left the common room and headed to the dungeons. "Black Lake" were the words that unlocked the secret door to Slytherin. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"What kind of password is that?"
"Shut up. Let's go."
As she expected, the intrusion of a Gryffindor into the snakes' den wasn't well-received. Malfoy's housemates raised their voices full of complaints, discontent, and harsh words.
"Idiots!" Draco yelled when he got tired of hearing their complaints. "Do you think I'm inviting Granger for tea in our common room? Imbeciles! This is a punishment from Dumbledore, so shut the fuck up already!"
Apparently, most of the students already knew about this detail. That he and his friends had dined at the Gryffindor table was strange enough for them to investigate and quickly find the reasons. Hermione wondered how many people would think they were having a romance at this point in the day.
"Punishment or not, she can't sleep in the boys' dormitory," said Nott, crossing his arms. He was soon backed by the other Slytherin students. "It's already bad enough we have to share our room with Weasley."
Coincidentally, he and Harry entered at that moment.
"And there's no way we'll allow Potter to sleep in the girls' dormitory," announced Millicent Bulstrode, who seemed to be speaking for all her roommates.
Pansy Parkinson rolled her eyes in response.
"Whatever, Milli." She pointed her wand into the room, and seconds later, her bed floated out and landed in the common room. Pansy arranged it in a corner of the place. "We'll sleep here. Not like I enjoy your pig-like snoring every night, anyway," she said maliciously. "At least now I have an excuse not to hear you."
Bulstrode scowled, turned her back, and locked herself in the girls' dormitory. Malfoy shrugged and copied his friend's spell. He placed his bed at the opposite end of the room. From there, with a corner between them, he could barely see Parkinson's bed.
Ron sighed, and he and Zabini entered the boys' dormitory as the room started to disperse. Apparently, no one wanted to stay too close to the intruders.
To Hermione's surprise, Draco started undressing once the room was empty.
"What the hell are you doing?" she exclaimed, horrified.
He turned slowly, bare-chested, and looked at her incredulously.
"Definitely not giving you a striptease, Granger," he snapped. Daphne entered at that precise moment and, after staring at the scene for a second, rushed into the girls' dormitory and disappeared with a slam of the door.
Malfoy sighed and grabbed his neatly folded pajamas off the bedspread before letting his pants drop to his feet. Hermione turned around to avoid seeing him. She would have gouged her eyes out right then and there if she could.
"Are you done yet?" she asked. When he confirmed, she turned back around and ordered him to turn his back while she changed.
"Not like I'm interested in seeing you naked. Ugh."
"Yeah, whatever you say. Now do as I told you," she growled.
Malfoy moved to face the wall.
"You know what? I think you should change the way you address me. I'm not one of your little friends that you can just belittle."
"First of all, I don't belittle my friends. And second of all… I'll change the way I address you when you earn my respect."
Draco Malfoy turned unexpectedly and walked towards her. She covered herself with the shirt she had just taken off to hide her bra and bare skin from him. She wanted to scream, but her throat had gone dry at his proximity. The air the Slytherin expelled through his nose brushed Hermione's face like a cold caress. Icy.
They both stayed like that, in silence and without moving, for longer than they would have liked to admit. Then, he sneered at her with contempt.
"It seems you've forgotten that you're a Mudblood in a world of real witches and wizards. If anyone needs to earn the other's respect, it's you," he said in a very low voice. "You're just a guest here, don't forget that."
Hermione did everything she could to keep her eyes from welling up as they threatened to do. Like a true Slytherin, he knew how to say the right words to hurt anyone's feelings. Right where it hurt the most. But she wasn't going to let him disrespect her like that. She wasn't someone he could intimidate; she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. Besides, she was as much a witch as Greengrass or Parkinson, and she wouldn't let anyone convince her otherwise.
Wrinkling her nose and holding his gaze, she whispered in turn:
"Go back to where you were, Malfoy. Take advantage of the five meters you have and get away from me right now."
He bared his teeth at her. The gesture felt like a full-blown threat.
"Gladly, Granger."
After that, neither of them spoke to each other again. Harry and Parkinson couldn't be heard from where they were either.
Draco got into bed, and Hermione lay down on one of the sofas in the room. The furniture in the common rooms couldn't be modified with a transforming spell, so there was nothing around her that she could turn into a bed. She covered herself with one of the blankets she found on the sofa's arms and, exhausted from the day's emotions and tantrums, she quickly drifted off to sleep.
It was no surprise that her rest was more restless than ever.
The night was well advanced when she woke up to strange groans. She soon realized it was Malfoy who seemed to be groaning. Was he having a nightmare? Was he feeling sick?
She stayed very still while she waited for her eyes to adjust to the scant light coming through small windows embedded in the stone walls, near the ceiling. She blinked a couple of times to speed up the process. Then, she squinted to try to understand what was going on.
The boy was on his back, covered with the sheet up to his waist. What was going on under the sheet caught her off guard. She could feel a bulge rising under the white cloth and a movement of hands around it. Up. Down. Up again.
She gasped as soon as she understood.
"What the fuck are you doing?" She gasped, startled by his behaviour.
He was startled to realise that the girl was awake. He hastened to put a finger to his lips to ask her to be quiet.
"I'm going to scream" she warned him, not sure she really could. She was in shock.
"No, wait, I can explain," he whispered with a hint of agony in his voice.
"Explain what? That you're a pervert?"
If Hermione hadn't felt safe in his presence, she felt even less safe now. A shiver ran down her spine and made her jump off the couch. She had to get Harry to help her drag Malfoy to the Headmaster's office. He couldn't force her to be tied to a degenerate, someone who could hurt her at a moment's notice. Would he have thought to abuse her in her sleep, when the testosterone had escalated through his body until it had taken over his reason?
Hermione started to run towards her friend, but surprisingly Malfoy caught up with her first, slamming her back painfully against the wall. He had ripped the sheet off the bed and wrapped it around his waist, holding it with one hand so it wouldn't slip. The other, his right hand, he was using to cover her mouth.
The palm of his hand was infused with the scent of his sex, Hermione could smell it with every breath.
"Shhh! You'll get us caught," he said in her ear. There was a certain desperation in his tone of voice, which unsettled the girl a little. Was he the victim in all this? How? Malfoy lowered his head, and without realizing it, his face was just inches from hers. She noticed that he looked... dejected. "All right, let me explain. I'll tell you everything, but you have to promise not to tell anyone."
If she could have spoken, Hermione would have asked a lot of questions, like "Do you have some sort of obsession with sex?"
While that would have made sense, there was something that still didn't quite fit. It seemed like everything was a little more... complicated. Darker than it might have seemed at first. However, no matter how many other options her mind was tossing around, Hermione couldn't come up with anything that would convince her.
She brought a hand to her face and slowly pulled his hand away from her mouth. The touch of his skin felt strange, like reaching into a blaze of fire and a stream of icy water at the same time.
Hermione was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It was strange to look into his eyes and only find vulnerability. It wasn't what she was used to with him. It was almost unsettling, unnatural.
She wondered what it was all about.
The fear had been dissipating until there was only an unbridled curiosity filling her body.
Once she managed to calm down, and doing so very slowly, Hermione whispered:
"I promise."
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