After the punch

4. Seeking out

The following evening, on Hallowe'en, the Goblet of Fire had selected the champions for the Triwizard tournament. As soon as Dumbledore had screamed Harry's name, Hermione had been stunned. As far as she had known, he didn't even want to participate, he had wanted a quiet, calm year. But taking part in the tournament would not be quiet and definitely not calm. She had been puzzled and couldn't pay attention to Professor Dumbledore's speech anymore.

After a few minutes everyone stood up and the Great Hall slowly emptied. So Hermione assumed they had been sent off. From the matter of habit, her feet took her towards the library. Because when in doubt, she goes to the library, even when she doesn't realise it. In the year before she had been so stressed because of her many subjects, that she had sleepwalked to the library to study more, just so she would know everything by heart. It had been strange, being woken up by Madam Pince, but after an apology and explanation Pince let her go with just a warning.

Only once she had arrived at the library she realised that she had unintentionally gone there. She decided to go in anyways, she could use a little bit of studying to keep her mind occupied.

After reading for about 20 minutes, and often losing track of her book and thinking about Harry's name being picked, she had finally reclaimed her concentration. However that had quickly faded, because of the overly familiar voice behind her.

"How'd he do it?" The tall, blonde haired, Slytherin asked her.

"Why do you keep seeking me out?" Hermione ignored his question, she didn't even know the answer anyways.

"I'm just curious, he couldn't've figured out how to participate on his own. He's not that smart, and Weaslebee isn't that smart either, so you probably helped him. I want to know how." Draco said with a little more force, but still with that smug undertone.

"So what if I have? Why should I tell you?" She turned around towards the Slytherin. Even though he was as smug as it gets and he was rotten on the inside. He had grown a lot over the summer and looked less like the scrawny, aggravating little boy she had known for 3 years. She was glad to be who she was, since this meant that she had no romantic interests in anyone at all yet and she didn't really care about anyone's looks. Even though she did prefer to look at someone that looked clean and well taken care of than someone who seemed to had never even met a shower.

Draco stared into her brown eyes (A/N Please notice my use of eyes, not orbs. Because what the hell is with all these orbs in fanfics, damn) "Well for starters, I could keep quiet about your thing for Krum." He smirked.

"I don't have a thing for Krum, so you can tell anyone you want, Malfoy. Second, I hate to break it to you but I don't know how he did it. I didn't even know he wanted to compete in this tournament. Actually, I was glad that he wanted to stay in the background for once. So you may leave me to my books again." Hermione stated and broke the connection between her and Draco's eyes.

"You couldn't've been that naïve, Granger. Saint Potter always wants to be in the spotlight, he doesn't know the word background, he literally sings that there's no way you're gonna find him in the background (Song: No Way, by: Starkid, musical: avps) Really Granger, he would've done anything to engage in this thing. Strange that he didn't ask one of his best friends for help though, makes it almost seem like he doesn't really think you're that smart and trustworthy." He folded his arms and casually leaned against a bookcase. "Then again this is a magical tournament and you're a mudblood, so how much help would you really be?"He thought he had hit a nerve there, but he seemed to have thought wrong.

"Than how come I get better grades than everyone? Aren't I the smartest witch of our age? It's a bit sad with your upbringing that someone who only found out that she's a witch 3 years and 3 months ago knows more than you and beats you at every single subject quite easily?" She grinned, knowing that he had not expected her to have a come back that effortlessly.

"You just study, you have no general knowledge of our world." Draco argued, pushing himself off the bookcase again.

"I have more general knowledge than most people in this castle, Malfoy. Now answer my question, why do you keep seeking me out?" She asked again, her eyes sparking with annoyance.

"I'm not seeking you out. Yesterday I gave Krum a tour, today I wanted to know how Potter did it and at the beginning of the year I had detention, so if you think that's seeking you out, then I think that title of smartest witch of our age, should be taken away from you." He smirked. "However I do get it. Sometimes when you want something really badly your brain starts to think it's true."

"What?!" Hermione screamed in disgust, "I do not want you seeking me out!" She yelled again, causing Draco to be slightly surprised by her sudden screams.

"Quiet down, will you? I would like to be able to hear after this conversation." He said, he suddenly noticed he had taken a small step backwards, so as to not seem weak he took a big step forwards again.

"Am I supposed to care about your wishes or something? Because I don't." She said, the signs of disgust on her face increasing as he got closer to her again.

"You look like you're the one who's disgusted by me talking to you, but it should be the opposite way, with you being a mudblood and everything." He explained, taking a step back again.

Hermione sighed, not this nonsense again, "If you were to take a drop of blood from both of us you wouldn't be able to identify them, so stop acting as if I'm so disgusting, because I didn't grow up in a discriminating household. You read that book didn't you?" Hermione asked him, she was clearly done with Draco's ignorance and was ready to teach him a lesson.

"Which book?" Draco asked, a little overwhelmed by how she had actually made a good point.

"The autobiography." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I only started yesterday." Draco said offensively.

"But you finished it already." Hermione said, knowing it was a good book that made you want to continue reading. She was almost certain she had seen him in class with it.

"It didn't have that many pages." He looked out of the window behind Hermione.

"I know it doesn't. So you finished it?" She tried to persuade him to answer her question, directly.

Draco sighed, "Yes I did finish reading it, what about it?" He asked.

"What do you think?" Hermione asked him cautiously.

Draco squinted his eyes, "You're gonna use my answer against me, aren't you?"

"No." She lied.

"Well it was outrageous, people getting treated different for their skin-colour." He relinquished.

Hermione grabbed her books and bag and stood up, "Because they can't do anything about it, they were born that way." She smirked, while she walked past him, leaving towards her common room. She had an immense feeling of victory and was not gonna let that go soon, well so she thought.