scars {dramione one-shots}

three {the library}

{draco's pov}

I have never been to the school library before. I have never searched the dusty shelves or walked among the creaky floorboards. I tried to avoid it as much as possible. But, here I am.

Last week, our Charms teacher Professor Flitwick, decided to put us into partners:

"Alright then class, for your next project you are going to be working in pairs," Professor Flitwick announces. Instinctively, I stand with Crabbe and Goyle - we would just have to be a three. Naturally, everyone else murmurs to one another and shuffles around to find a partner. "Don't bother moving around! I have chosen the pairs myself," Flitwick says. Everyone groans at this. He hands out the assignments to each pair until only myself and a couple of others are left - Crabbe and Goyle both got paired together to my disappointment. The only people left were a tall Ravenclaw girl, a scrawny Hufflepuff and... oh Salazar, Hermione Granger.
As Professor Flitwick called out the name of the Ravenclaw student, I secretly hoped I would be paired with her. But no, the Ravenclaw and the Hufflepuff got paired together and my name was called out alongside Hermione's. We both stare at each for a long while before I decide to take the upper hand and walk over to her.

And now here I was, standing outside the library, ready to study with my partner. I took a deep breath and opened the heavy door.

{hermione's pov}

"You're late," I say as Draco walks over and sits beside me. He was meant to be here 10 minutes ago, but I used the quiet to study a little.
"Sorry," he mutters. For once, without sarcasm or a mean comment.
"You need to revise on levitating and disarming, as well as summoning and banishing. We will work on the silencing charm and stunning spell later," I order, wanting to get started as soon as possible.
"Granger, shouldn't we just practice on each other?" he asks, a little impatiently.
"Malfoy. Read behind it first, then we can focus on the wand movements."

By midday I had finished reading through all the charms twice - Draco had barely finished them once. I continued to sit in silence as he kept reading. He looked very peaceful as he read, even when he scratched his head in frustration...FOCUS! He looked up and caught me staring at him. "You okay?" he asks.
"Mmhhm, yeah. Are you nearly done?"
"Yeah, I guess," he closes the book and huffs heavily, "let's practice."

"Firstly, we will start with levitation, as we learnt this in first year it should be easy enough," I turn away and practice the wand movements.
"Er, Granger, aren't we meant to be doing this together?" he laughs slightly.
I look up to the ceiling and calm myself down. "Yes, Malfoy, we are," I say, turning back around to face him.

{draco's pov}

Hermione looks funny when she's mad. Not a bad funny, just...funny. Her curly hair sticks out at odd angles and she starts to take deeper breaths.
"Go on then, show me!" she demands.
I wave my wand perfectly in the swish-and-flick motion whilst saying 'wingardium leviosa' and the book I was reading lifted effortlessly into the air. I feel a smirk creep across my face and look over at Hermiome. She looks at me in shock. I let out a loud laugh and she stares at me incrediously.
"Did you not think I could do a simple charm like this?" I snort.
"Well, you could never do it in class," she states.
"Granger, darling, that was first year!" I had to keep blinking to stop the tears from falling.
"Draco Malfoy, did you just call me DARLING?!" she shouts, but I'm already gone. Her hands ball into fists at her sides but I cannot stop laughing. This was too good. Her small eyes widen to a size I never thought possible, and her bottom lip quivers.
"What's wrong darling?" I tease.
"Malfoy you are going to pay for this!" and with that, she picks up her own book and runs at me.
"Catch me if you can!" I wink back at her and start to run away. My long strides quickly outpace her, so I only have to jog, which makes me laugh even harder. She keeps coming for me though, no sign of tiring - just pure rage. We run between stacks of bookcases and stacks of papers, and narrowly miss the librarian at one point. Eventually though, I stop running upon seeing a dead end.

Hermione is right behind me and as I turn she wacks me with the book she is holding multiple times. I still laugh through it all, shielding my face from being beaten. Finally she stops and gives me the darkest stare I have ever been given; and that's saying something as I have been given many. I stare right back into her eyes, finally taking a pause between my laughs. However, I soon feel the same smile creep back across my face, and this time I see it on Hermione's face too. Before I can do anything, she collapses into laughter, hand braced against the bookshelf and she throws her head back so violently I thought it would fall off. Tears soon drip from her eyes which she quickly wipes away, but then I continue to laugh, making her giggle harder. We both end up sliding down to the ground and then sitting on the floor, clutching at our shaking sides. I have never laughed this much in my life!
Ever so slowly, we started to calm down, both faces and bodies aching from the fit of laughter we just dragged ourselves through.

Maybe studying with Granger wouldn't be as bad as I thought.

A/N - I thought I would do a light-hearted chapter for once, and I think this may be my favourite one-shot so far! Please let me know if you liked it :)