Pride and Polyjuice Potion

Chapter 6

The Hogwarts Quad the next day.

It was a late September morning, the leaves had started to turn brown and the air carried a slight chill with it.

She was indulging herself in a book during one of her free periods, although struggling slightly to concentrate. Cedric Diggory and Viktor Krum were the cause of this distraction and as much as Hermione tried to rid herself of such thoughts at that present moment, her efforts were to no avail.

"Granger."

She put her book down on top of the second one resting on her lap, and looked around her but couldn't see anyone who might have addressed her. At first she thought Fred and George were playing a prank on her. As she began to sit back down, she was startled by a loud thud as Draco Malfoy jumped down from one of the trees.

"You're supposed to greet me back, Granger."

"What?" Her forehead was pinched together with confusion.

"I just greeted you. The polite thing to do would be to greet me back."

"Why in Godric's name should I try to be polite to you?"

"Still curious to know what it was you said to me exactly?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and exhaled loudly.

"No," she said defensively, both hands on her hips. It reminded her of her younger self. "You're the one that keeps bringing it up."

"Perhaps if you knew what it was, you too would be unable to stop thinking about it."

Draco's words startled her slightly. He had been thinking about her? She quickly corrected herself. No, he had been laughing at how much of fool she had made of herself a week and a half ago. That's what he had been thinking about.

"You're not tempting me, Malfoy."

"No?" he asked with a smirk.

"No," Hermione repeated firmly. "Now I'll kindly ask you to leave me alone. You're disturbing my reading."

At this, Draco glanced at the book resting on Hermione's lap. His eyes squinted slightly.

"Why does it look like that?"

"It's a paperback. It's a muggle thing," she replied, standing up, and bending the book in front of him to show him.

"It looks awfully flimsy," Draco remarked. Strangely, his tone was more emotionlessly declarative than snooty.

"They are. Hardbacks exist in the muggle world too. Like this one," she said, picking up the second book from the bench. "They're just more expensive so I had to borrow it from the muggle section in the library."

"Oh," was all Draco said.

Hermione could tell from his response that such a thing had never been a concern for him. While not necessarily poor herself, she wasn't so privileged as to have millions of inherited galleons flowing out of her fingertips. With something she bought as frequently as books, she tried to save wherever she could.

There was an extended silence between them, which had started to grow insufferable. Hermione still had some twenty minutes left of her free period, but she would have left then and there to end the awkwardness.

To her surprise, Draco ended it by asking her another question.

"What were you doing with Krum-bitch yesterday?"

Hermione looked up at him once again, astonished by his presumption.

"Is it any of your business?" she asked.