After the punch

7. Jealous?

"Look what she wrote." Pansy Parkinson sat down next to Draco on the black, leather couch in the Slytherin common room. She shoved the daily prophet in his face. "Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle-born girl!" She snarled. It was a few days after Draco had last talked to Hermione in private.

Draco sighed and grabbed the newspaper from Pansy's hands, holding it a little further from his face, so he could read it. "It does say that, yes." Draco agreed, not really interested in the conversation at the moment.

"Losers belong together anyways." She said, rolling her eyes.

Draco looked at her, "What do you mean? Potter and Granger are like siblings, they're not together." He scoffed.

"They are, it says so right here in the article." She said, pointing at the line.

Draco looked back at the page and began to read, "Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle-born girl who, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school." He read out loud. "That's bogus, Creevey is that annoying third-year with the camera. He's not a friend of Potter's." He stated, laying the newspaper down on the lounge table in front of him.

Pansy cocked an eyebrow, "Why do you care that much about if it's true or not?" She asked him.

Draco scoffed, "I don't."

"Why?" She said bossily. She knew that whenever she used this tone Draco gave in, and just as predicted he did.

"Don't relationships and love make people happy? Do we want to see them happy? I don't think we do." He lied flawlessly, receiving a smirk from Pansy.

"Do you have a plan or something to stop them from being happy?" She gave him an excited and hopeful look.

Of course she immediately wanted to make a plan, even though Skeeter was probably just romanticising a platonic relationship. But, Draco decided to keep up his act and played along. "Well the best thing would be breaking them up and leaving both of them heartbroken."

Pansy backed away from Draco a little, "How would we do that?" She asked.

"Well, the best way would be making one of them fall in love with someone else. So that they leave the other for their new love. But their new love can't love them back." Draco explained. He had absolutely no idea where he was going with this plan, but it seemed like fun.

Pansy pulled a disgusted face, "I am not making Potter fall for me, so unless you know someone who will, that won't work." She explained, triggering something in Draco's brain.

"What if I made Granger fall for me?" He smirked. Somehow the thought of Granger falling for him seemed quite satisfying and enjoyable. Of course he would be treating her like something he'd find under his shoe, but isn't that what would make it even better?

Pansy simply sat there, a dumbfounded expression on her face, "You want that mudblood to become in love with you?"

Draco shrugged, "I just think it could be funny to play a little with her feelings." He lied. Although, she knew she had something coming after that mudbloods aren't worse thing...

"It does seem like fun, but there's not much for me to do." She whined.

"You get the best job of all, you get to watch." Draco stated. "Now if you don't mind, I have other business to attend to." He stood up and walked off towards the place where he knew he would find the witch, whom would be falling in love with him before she knew it. At least that was the plan.

---

Draco entered the library and immediately made his way towards Hermione's usual seat, but he didn't find her on her own, as expected. On the chair opposite of hers sat Viktor Krum. She was focused on her book, but he wasn't reading, nor browsing, nor writing. No, all he did was staring at her. He decided he could be nice, or bring up the article. The second option seemed like more fun, so he grabbed a book from the shelves and slapped it shut loudly, making Hermione look up.

"Malfoy." Hermione stated.

"Granger." Draco replied. "Oh wait, should I leave? Is your boyfriend okay with you being in the same room as two guys?" He teased.

Hermione simply looked back at her book. "You know Rita Skeeter always exaggerates, Harry and I are just friends." She stated.

Draco now turned his gaze to Viktor, "Krum, what are you doing here?" He asked.

"We are, how do you say?" Krum asked Hermione, who looked back at Draco for a second while she said; "We're hanging out."

"Seems like fun." Draco said sarcastically, "Anyways, Granger I wanna talk to you in private."

Hermione looked up again, "No you don't." She simply said.

"Yes I do. So, Krum, would you mind?" Draco asked in a polite tone, although his smirk indicated that he had something, he would call, 'fun' in mind.

Hermione sighed, "It's okay. I'll see you another time." She told Krum, who was a little dumbfounded by the conversation. But he did as he was told and left the library.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Hermione asked.

Draco chuckled and looked down at the badge on her chest. He reached out to it, but Hermione had stood up and backed away, "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Just let me try something." Draco smirked.

But Hermione would not take it. "No! Draco Malfoy I can take your cocky grins, smirks and your remarks, but I will not let you assault anyone in this school, including myself. You better take a few steps back right now or I'll hex you, until you will never be able to tell your precious father about anything anymore." She screamed, pointing her wand at him. Draco finally realised what it looked like he was doing and quickly took a few steps back.

"Whoa, that's not what I was doing, I just wanted to check your badge." He explained and Hermione let out a relieved sigh.

"There's no need to check my badge. There's nothing special about it." Hermione shrugged, but Draco's seemed unconvinced.

He took a step towards her, "So you won't mind if I just press it?" He reached for her badge again. But she pushed his hand away.

"There's no need." Hermione stated stubbornly. "Nothing will happen."

"Sure" He smirked, but he quickly muttered a spell and let a book hit her badge, transforming the text into 'Parkinson is a pug-faced wanker.' "I can't believe this, you lied to me!" He exclaimed, while Hermione pushed the button again, so it changed back.

"I accidentally wore this one. I placed it next to one another on my nightstand. I didn't realise this was yours." She tried, but Draco saw right through her.

"Oh come on, you just thought it was funny. Don't deny it." Draco smirked.

"You always seem so fond of Parkinson, so a little, yes." She confessed.

Draco chuckled, "Jealous?"

Hermione shot him a disgusted glance, "No. I'm not jealous of her."

"If you say so."

Hermione picked up the book on the floor and walked over to where the other copies of it stood. When she passed Draco, she slapped his arm with it.

"Ow?" Draco said. But Hermione didn't react. She simply placed the book on the right shelf, made her way back to the table, sat down and started reading again.