It Was All Just A Mask [A Dramione Story]

Devil in the Form of Her Date

-    "Fraternizing with the enemy."     -

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"Why are you taking her to Slughorn's party?" Blaise asked, utterly disgusted.

"I need something from Slughorn, but he never will talk to me, so I had to ask Granger." Part of me felt like I was betraying her my spitting on her name like I had, but it was necessary, just like every other time.

"What do you need?"

"Let's just say it is in The Dark Lord's best interests."

That shut him up. Blaise always wanted to be in with me. In the 'cool' crowd of Slytherin, but whenever it came to serious darkness, he was always too cowardly to take any part in. 

That evening, I was fitting myself into my expensive dress robes. The black leather accents contrasted my pale skin, eyes, and hair quite nicely. There was not a fold anywhere on them, and I had to admit, I was one stunning bachelor. I just hoped Granger thought so as well.

I uncovered the posioned wine to hand to Professor Slughorn from under my bed and grabbed the bouquet that I was going to gift Granger. After all, I didn't want to seem suspicious with gifting something to a teacher, but not my date. The bouquet consisted of red roses and gardenias. It was the same bundle that I had brought to the hospital wing in our second year. 

In the Malfoy family, flowers meant a lot. From a young age, I was taught the meaning of different flowers, and which ones not to use at a dinner party. Gardenias represented a secret love, like mine and Grangers, and the red roses translated roughly to, "I love you." It was perfect, even if I only knew the meanings. I wanted this to be perfect for her because I didn't know how many parties we have left.

I met her outside of the Gryffindor common room, along with some nasty sideways glances from younger students. Potter and Weasley must not speak very nicely of me. No wonder Granger doesn't want them knowing about us, everyone in Gryffindor despises me.

When I caught sight of her angelic beauty, I lost my breath. She was absolutely perfect. Her rosy pink dress flattered her body in just the right spots. The neckline of the dress was revealing, but not inappropriately so. Her hair seemed to have been impregnated with heavenly sparkles. In short, she was beyond my wildest fantasies. She had dressed up for... me. This can't be real. I don't deserve this. 

Evidently I wasn't the only person who thought so. "HIM?" shouted Weasley from inside their portrait hole, "Why him Hermione? He's vile!"

She didn't respond, but I could tell his words hurt her. I wanted to stand up to Weasley, but I couldn't find the courage.

"Fraternizing with the enemy," he said to Finnigan, who was standing right next to him. Finnigan nodded.

"The ENEMY  Ronald?" she screamed back at him, defending me. I should have walked away, telling her he's right, I am the enemy, but I had a job to accomplish. If I failed, Professor Snape would be venomous.

"You heard me."

I grabbed her arm gently, and whispered in her ear, "Hermione, let's go." She didn't listen, instead she continued her banter with Weasley.

"That's rich, coming from you. Sneaking off at night to go and snog!"  What was she referring to? Surely Granger and Weasley weren't-

"What Lav and I have is different," he replied. Good. I was glad to hear that my Hermione hasn't been snogging two people at once. "This is just mental!"