Enemy Seduction: Dramione

Another Day

"Oy! Hermione!"

Hermione turned around and saw Ron jogging to catch up with her. For some strange reason, she had the small urge to run away. 

"Ron! Where were you at break? I only saw Harry," she said as he walked with her.

"I had to talk to McGonagall about getting the pitch for practice this week. Are you going to lunch right now?" he asked.

"Actually, I was going to do a bit of studying."

"In the library?"

"No. The Room of Requirement."

"Oh. Er, I could come with you...if you want..." he suggested hopefully. Hermione reacted quickly. 

"You know, I'm actually quite hungry. I think I'm going to eat lunch in the Great Hall today instead. Will you walk with me?" she asked. 

 "Sure," he replied eagerly, although he seemed a little disappointed. Feeling guilty, Hermione reached out and held his hand. He gave her a surprised but delighted smile and entwined fingers with hers as they descended the marble staircase towards the Great Hall. 

----------------

For the first time in forever, Hermione wasn't paying attention to Professor Vector in her Advanced Arithmancy class. She was too consumed with guilt to concentrate on anything. Ron had really wanted to be alone with her today...and she had panicked. She was so confused. So their first kiss hadn't been everything that she had expected. She still loved him. 

But what was she so attracted to Malfoy? Why had their first kiss been so wonderful...No! Hermione's mind shriek. I'm not attracted to Malfoy! He's vile!

OH, but she was only fooling herself. She wanted him and she knew it. She knew as much as she knew that she had never been so physically attracted to anyone. 

And Ron! Why couldn't she be attracted to him? Everything was going wrong. Harry was supposed to be Head Boy. Ron was supposed to be the only man for her. Damn Malfoy! He was ruining everything! But it was going to stop now! Hermione knew she had to take action and take back control of her life. She would stay strong and ignore Malfoy's advances until he gave up. Because eventually, he would give up....wouldn't he?

---------------

Draco made the final touches to his Transfiguration essay and looked up at the clock. It was a few minutes before ten. Hoping to get Hermione to join him for patrol, he went to retrieve the bookworm from her room.

"Granger," he called, knocking on her door. 

No answer. 

"Good one, Granger. I know you're in there!"

Still no answer. 

"The little shit," he muttered, turning the doorknob. It was locked. 

"Oh, come on!" he yelled.

"Need something, Malfoy?"

Malfoy whipped around and found Hermione standing just inside the common room with an amused smirk on her face. 

"Why the hell is your door locked?" he asked irritably. 

"I have you living next to me. Need I say more?"

"Very funny. Are you just now getting back from detention?"

"No. I didn't have detention. I just finished patrol," she replied, grinning happily to herself. 

"Maybe I was hallucinating, Granger, but I could have sworn I saw Snape give you a detention. And unless my eyesight is failing, it's now ten o'clock, meaning it's time to start patrol. And what the bloody hell are you grinning about?" he bit out. Hermione actually laughed. 

"Today's my lucky day," she announced. 

"Really? Why?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well, it's a funny story. Oh, but I can't tell it to you now. You have patrol," she said, almost dancing to the nearest armchair and plopping down.

"Screw patrol. I want to hear what's gotten you in such a perky moody," he said, plopping down into an armchair near hers. Hermione sighed. 

"If you insist," she said with mock exasperation before beginning her tale. "Today after class, I decided to have a little chat with Professor McGonagall. I confessed to her that, with all the homework and late night patrols, I wasn't getting much sleeping that the sleep I was getting was riddled with nightmares due to excess amounts of stress. I then told her all about my tardiness in Snape's class this morning and then detention I received. That's when she gave me the brilliant solution to all my problems."

"Which was?"

"She switched my schedule with one of prefects. So now, I have patrol duty from nine to ten o'clock instead of an hour later," she concluded cheerfully.

"That still doesn't explain how you got out of detention."

"Oh right! That! Well, with me being Head Girl, Professor McGonagall took pity on me and waved the detention. Wasn't that generous of her?"

"Agonizingly so," Malfoy replied. Hermione yawned. 

"I've had a very long day, and I already finished my homework. I think I'll turn in."

Without another glance at Malfoy, Hermione stood up and pranced gracefully to her room. She couldn't have been more proud with herself. Not only did she escape spending more time with the arrogant bastard, but she would also have the bathroom to herself for at least an hour every night. Finally hearing Malfoy leave a few minutes later, Hermione did what she had been waiting to do for over two weeks: She took her first nighttime bath.

-------------------------

"Shouldn't you be patrolling the halls for nocturnal miscreants?" Blaise asked.

"Fuck patrol," Malfoy snapped. Blaise grinned.

"You have big news, then?"

Malfoy picked up his glass of firewhiskey and swirled it around, smelling it.

"The plot has definitely thickened," he replied, smirking into the amber liquid. "IT seems that the guilt factor is starting to set in," he said, taking a sip.

"The guilt factor?"

"Although Granger is attracted to me," Malfoy explained, "she is now with Weasle. And even though she loves Weasle, she's not attracted to him."

"So she feels guilty for being attracted to you," Blaise concluded. 

"Exactly. And it gets better. Potter saw me kiss her today."

"Right. The significance of that being..."

"He also saw her not push me away. Potter's a little temperamental, but he's not an idiot. He accused her of being attracted to me. She convinced him that she wasn't. Then he basically told her that their friendship would end if she slept with me. It wasn't part of my original plan to split up the Golden Trio, but I must say, it will be a nice bonus in the end," Malfoy finished cockily, downing the rest.

"I'm impressed, Draco. I had no idea that you were such an expert in clairvoyance.

"I'm not. I'm just really good at eavesdropping."