ILLUSION | A Dramione Fanfiction

Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Troubles in the Bathtub

Draco walked into his bedroom about half an hour later to find Hermione curled up in a ball on the bed, her eyes closed in a deep slumber. Various insults flooded his mind just at the sight of her. Why did she have to be so bloody infuriating? She must be the only person on the whole freaking planet that could push his buttons the way she did, this was a fact that Draco was glad Hermione was not aware of. Even when he tried to make things work, tried to keep things in order, she still had to go out of her way to make things difficult. Some would say "it's a woman thing". But not Draco Malfoy, for the amount of experience he had had with the opposite sex proved to him that it wasn't a "woman thing", it was Granger; she was one of a kind and Draco hated her with exceptional passion.

Draco was so cooped up in his thoughts that he failed to realise Hermione stir slightly and open her eyes to a very unwelcoming picture. Malfoy stood there staring at her with a distant look upon his face. For Hermione I was absolutely unnerving to find her worst enemy standing before her right after waking up from a wonderful dream, which due to his 'oh so beautiful (notice the sarcasm) face' had completely abandoned her mind.

"What do you want?" Asked Hermione, shaking Draco out of these thoughts.

"It's time for lunch." Draco replied simply after recovering from the shock of being discovered. He then proceeded to turn around to walk back out the door but was stopped by Hermione's unsure voice.

"Look, I'm sorry about before. I acted really immaturely." She said, surprising both herself and him.

Draco looked back at her. He was clearly shocked, but he didn't dare let that show on his face. She had actually apologised, well that was interesting. Knowing her it was probably just another scheme to make his life miserable. 'I see' is all he managed to say as he stared at her, yet again.

"And I'll try and, you know get along with you...for Nick's sake of course." Hermione continued.

"Well, it's good to see you're finally catching on Granger, very good indeed." Said Draco, with an air of arrogance to his voice.

"That's another thing, if we're going to get along then we should call each other by our first names. Nick is finding it strange."

"That makes sense, Hermione."

"Well, I'm glad you think so, Draco."

They looked at each other for a few extra seconds, almost daring the other to say something out of line, so they themselves could retort. But no comment was made; they continued to stare, each of them raising one eyebrow. Realising that no battle was going to occur, Draco, once again, turned to walk out the door, and Hermione, once again, stopped him.

"I don't know where we're going to eat Draco, would you mind showing me." Said Hermione, her voice laced with fake innocence.

"Why of course. We'll pick Nick up along the way, shall we?" Replied Draco in the same, sickly innocent tone. He even offered her his arm, which she took, just to piss him off. They then walked down the hall arms linked; they stopped at Nick's bedroom and then continued their way through the Manor.

To an outsider it would look appear as the start of a beautiful newfound relationship, but to one who knew them well it would be a completely different story. They would be able to see that the two had minds that worked at exactly the same pace, yet their views couldn't be any different; they were equally as intelligent, equally as clever, and equally as stubborn. When one challenged the other, both individuals would be aware, whether there were words exchanged or not. What was happening now was a challenge, a very difficult challenge at that. It was a challenge to see which would crack the fastest, which would be the first to lose their cool and do something drastic, something completely out of order. And at the moment the only way to win that challenge were to agree with their opponent, and then slowly yet surely eat them up from the inside. It was a tactic that both contestants had taken up because they knew that the only way to destroy the other was to work cleverly, to work without letting the other know what you were doing. But what these two individuals were not aware of was that though this tactic seemed like the best, it would clash horribly in this plot, and everything would backfire.