cream & sugar | dramione

ii

The next morning, Hermione awoke just before her alarm rang. She had charmed it to work within the parameters of Hogwarts, something that remained her small secret. Unfortunately, Malfoy yelled from the common room, "What is that infernal noise, Granger?"
    She giggled a little bit to herself at the irritated use of her last name. "Nothing, Malfoy!"
    "It sure sounds like something," she heard him grumble, and she smiled to herself as she got herself dressed for the day. There was a mirror in her room, so thankfully she didn't need to use the shared bathroom. The water was running, and she guessed that Malfoy would be in there for a while. She had heard he was a bit of a beauty queen.
    She charmed her hair into soft waves (much easier than a whole bottle of Sleakeazy's), and put on minimal makeup. Hermione had refused to wear makeup for years, but seeing Ginny do hers every morning got Hermione into the habit of it as well. She fastened her Head Girl pin to her lapel proudly, then made her way out of her room, locking the door behind her with a wave of her wand.
    Hermione got the coffee brewing itself and found a bit of cream, sitting down at the wooden table in the middle of the common room. She hummed to herself as she read over the chapters that would be covered in the first day of lessons, taking light notes.
    "Merlin, Hermione, it's the first day and you're already doing homework?" Malfoy said, stepping out of the bathroom. Hermione squeaked and covered her eyes. Nothing but a white towel loose around his waist covered the tall boy.
    "Put some clothes on!" she said, waving a hand at him with her other arm still over her eyes.
    "Oh, calm down. I'm covered," he said, and she could almost hear the roll of his eyes as he shut the door to his room. She cautiously opened her eyes and seeing him emerge from his room fully clothed, she nodded in approval.
    "Thank you," she said pointedly. "I made coffee. Do you want some?"
    "Sure," he said, sitting down across from her and flipping his damp hair out of his eyes.
    Two mugs of coffee flew toward them, and Malfoy muttered a thank you as he dumped an obscene amount of cream in his coffee. Hermione wrinkled her nose, but otherwise ignored it and sipped at her coffee.
    "What's that for?" Malfoy asked, nudging her notes.
    "Care of Magical Creatures," Hermione said. "We've got a new teacher this year, and I don't want to take any chances."
    He rolled his eyes. "You would score top marks nonetheless."
    Hermione pinkened. "I- erm, well, you don't know that. It's important to review your material."
    He smiled slightly, and Hermione was struck by the beauty of a real smile from him. She hadn't seen it much, only the hardened sneer that had followed herself and her friends around in the previous years of school. Her face colored again, and she looked down quickly, scolding herself.
    Malfoy took a sip of his coffee and grimaced- not surprising, considering the amount of cream that he had dumped into his. She sighed and pushed her own cup across to him. He looked at her, surprise on his face, then smiled again and pulled it toward him. Hermione cautiously smiled back.

    "What the bloody hell was that?" Ginny exclaimed.
    "What was what?" Hermione asked, frowning at her in confusion. They sat beside each other in their Potions class, set to work on a very basic love potion that Hermione had taken the lead on and already finished.
    "That!" Ginny shouted, pointing at Malfoy. Hermione shushed her, shoving her hand down.
    "That is Malfoy."
    "No, you daft idiot. I meant that smile," she said. "He just turned around and smiled at you! Actually smiled! And for no reason!"
    Hermione shrugged, unable to force down the smile that rose, unbidden, to her face. "I don't know."
    Ginny rolled her eyes. "What are you doing?"
    "I don't know what you mean."
    "Sure, he's hot, but what about Ron?"
    Hermione looked at her in shock. "What are you implying?"
    Ginny shrugged. "I don't know. He seems awfully eager to make amends... I'm just saying. Be careful."
    Hermione frowned. "We're just roommates, Ginny. Nothing more, nothing less. He offered an olive branch after our bad history, and I accepted it. I still love Ron."
    "Okay," Ginny said, lapsing into silence at the tone of finality in Hermione's voice.
   

(a/n: writer's block never ends 😭 sorry guys)