Baton Rouge

- 10 -

Merlin! What was he thinking? Draco tore his hair as he walked through morning London, taking as many detours as possible to give himself some time to ponder before he arrived at the Ministry.

Apparently life wasn't kind to him at the moment. Not only that Hermione Granger was now sitting happily in his apartment reading his books. No. She had also seen him naked and he had made her breakfast. Now he didn't know which of the two circumstances was more strange. He was clearly being too nice to her for no real reason.

In any case, it had nothing to do with sympathy. Draco had never felt anything like that towards Granger and that wasn't going to change anytime soon. He just didn't like how thin and gaunt she was, and at least trying to change that wasn't a bad thing, was it?

His appearance after the shower, on the other hand, had only been an act of defiance. He had to admit to himself that he was actually dissatisfied that Granger so obviously rejected him, even was disgusted with him. He hadn't expected Hermione Granger to ever like him, but he really couldn't understand why she would choose certain candidates he found totally inappropriate over him. He felt almost a little offended that she deliberately spurned him.

Even now this feeling boiled up in him again and he snorted softly. She'd be lucky if someone like him would pay to have sex with her (instead of the men she usually had to satisfy). He was wealthy, handsome, and intelligent, yet sometimes she looked at him as if he was nothing more than a particularly despicable creature. It scratched his ego.

Secretly, he might have thought or hoped that seeing him so uncovered would melt her. Not that he really intended to sleep with her. But for some inexplicable reason he wanted and needed that confirmation from her, which he couldn't explain to himself either.

But instead of granting him this unspoken wish, she had simply asked him, shocked, to cover himself with a towel. And to top it all off, she hadn't shown an ounce of gratitude that he had gotten her out of the brothel.

He wasn't used to being rejected, and Granger was clearly not in the position to do so. Still, she kept making him feel like he was going back to school and like there were only a few moments left before he took another slap in the face. Because that was how he remembered her most vividly. But this Hermione Granger was gone, wasn't she?

Draco sighed and shook his head. Since meeting her for the first time in all these years, he felt uncomfortable and confused. It all had started in the Baton Rouge when she had given him such provocative answers. Then he had seen her dance, which, confusingly, had kind of aroused him, and now she was sitting in his apartment because he desperately needed to prove something to her and himself. As if he didn't have enough problems.

He couldn't even get any sleep knowing that she was lying on the sofa just next door to his bedroom. The whole night he had tried to finally cross over to the land of dreams, eyes closed purposefully, but he had simply not been able to fall asleep and had therefore got up right after her. That was also the reason why he was now completely bleary-eyed despite the shower, although he badly needed a clear head for the work that still lay ahead of him today.

Umbridge would wring his neck if she knew what he was currently doing in his free time instead of putting all his energies into chasing Potter.

Potter. That was a different matter. Draco felt his chest tighten as he thought about Granger having once been one of Potter's best friends. He was absolutely sure that the two were no longer in touch (it would have been far too obvious and risky) but still felt almost guilty, because Granger probably didn't know what his daily work consisted of. He was also quite sure that she would give him an even more disgusted look when she found out that he was in charge of tracking The Undesirable.