Reckless ~ Tomione

The Second Task

Hermione woke up with her ankles above her head.

"Greystone, if you don't wake your arse up right now, I will personally drop you into the Black Lake."

Hermione looked around and noticed that everything was upside down, including a pissed Walburga Black who had her wand pointed at Hermione.

"I'm up," Hermione muttered, quickly casting the reverse to the Levitation Charm Walburga had used. That was when she heard it.

"Hermione, my dear Hermione..."

"Draco?" No, that can't be right. Opera wasn't his thing, was it? It didn't sound half-bad. "DRACO!"

"YES, DARLING?"

"Oh, would you two can it!" Cassandra, one of Hermione's dorm-mates, groaned. "Greystone, if you need to be somewhere for the Task, I suggest leaving now."

Oh, broomsticks. The Task. Today.

She leapt out of bed and dressed as quickly as she could, cleaning up in record time and appearing in a whirlwind in the Common Room, where Draco had parked his behind on a plush sofa. Hermione found herself admiring his bright hair, which caught the morning light just as well as the expensive-looking chandelier above him.

"You slept in, didn't you," he accused. Hermione gave him a look.

"If by 'sleeping in' you mean waking up at the crack of dawn to being lifted by your ankles and a white-haired weirdo serenading you, then yes, I believe I slept in." Hermione glared at him. He rolled his eyes.

"Well, we have no progress on the clue, so we may as well forfeit now," he yawned.

"Well, we have a little progress," Hermione muttered. Draco perked up. "Don't get excited, it doesn't help at all, and it's not solid evidence."

"Please, anything right now would be better than this."

"Well," Hermione faltered, wondering if she was even right, "I tested a little of the liquid itself, and from what I could tell, the stuff is just what you would get if you took a handful of Galleons and melted them down, though it is cool enough to touch, which I supposed could be achieved through a charm."

"So it's just molten gold," Draco sighed. "That's incredibly helpful."

Hermione glared. "I said it doesn't help, not my fault you don't listen."

"Well what are the properties of it?" Draco fiddled with a piece of string that had come undone from his button-up shirt.

"Not much, magically, except that it remains a liquid at room temperature," Hermione replied. "What are we going to do?" She buried her face in her hands, praying someone to give her a sign.

"Let's just get breakfast." Malfoy said. "Maybe we'll think of something when I'm not starving to death."

"Oh, poor you," Hermione snapped, but she stood to head to the door. "Hurry up."

~

As the pair entered the Great Hall that morning, they noticed something. The room was not as empty as it should have been. Sat at the Ravenclaw table was Isabelle Laurent and Marie LeMay, while Lucas and Rafael Karofiev pored over a textbook where Hufflepuffs sat. Abraxas sat with Tom Riddle at their usual place on the far end of the Slytherin table, and Headmaster Dippet occupied a place at the head table with Professor Dumbledore.

"Ah, our final team! So good of you to join us!" The headmaster waved his arms theatrically.

Draco nodded in acknowledgement, and sauntered after a scurrying Hermione to a spot at the end of the Slytherin table, the other end from the other team. Abraxas shot Hermione a look that she couldn't interpret, but quickly turned away to focus on Dippet.