Poison Apple | A Dramione FanFiction

Pansy's Outburst

Hermione's mood had significantly improved since she did not have any differences with Ron anymore. She was even more relieved that she was off night-duty and could spend that time reading.
Hermione wasn't surprised at all when she opened her copy of The Daily Prophet, and saw the article on the front page titled: Fifteen Deatheaters caught in one Raid; Minister of Magic gives out details. 
As her classes were about to start in approximately two hours, Hermione had a lot of time by herself in the empty Common Room, trying to imagine what would happen if the Deatheaters attacked Hogwarts, knowing that their master had suffered a terrible fate.
Suddenly interrupting her thoughts, the Common Room door burst open and Dean Thomas entered, carrying a roll of parchment tied in green ribbon.
"Hello Hermione." Dean greeted warmly.
"Hey Dean, what's up?"
"Here's a letter for you." Dean handed her the parchment, as she nodded her thanks. Unrolling the letter, she realized that it was written in green ink:

Miss Granger,

I recently received a letter from Mr. Potter, saying he wants to visit today because of an urgent reason. Unfortunately, I shall not be in school as I have an urgent business to deal with in Hogsmeade. However, as Potter insisted that it was really important, I wrote to him saying he could visit.

You know that school security is really tight, you shall be seeing eachother in Hagrid's Hut at 8:00 pm this evening. The only thing you have to do is show this letter to Mr. Filch, and he'll let you through.

Minerva McGonagall,

Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Knowing how important this was, Hermione pocketed the roll carefully. Her stomach gave a groan of protest, and Hermione said, "Alright, alright. I'll go for breakfast."

                                                                                                                      *
"Draco!" Zabini shouted after him, running to catch up as Draco entered the Great Hall. "Wait up!"
Pansy was sitting on the empty Slytherin Table, and Draco had no wish to sit with her. Zabini slowly caught his breath.
"You go sit with her." Draco ordered. 
"What're you going to do?" Zabini asked, walking towards the Slytherin Table.
"Try to find an excuse to escape."
The Great Hall was almost deserted: Zabini sat a good distance away from Pansy on the Slytherin Table; Justin, Hannah and Susan sat huddled together on the Hufflepuff Table; Luna had the Ravenclaw Table to herself, quietly reading a magazine (The Quibbler ); Neville was chatting away with Seamus on the Gryffindor Table.
Hermione came running in, going for the Gryffindor Table, rushing past Draco as he cleared his throat to say, "Heya Hermione."
She stopped in her tracks, as she caught sight of Pansy giving her a dirty look to her. Ignoring Pansy, Hermione replied, "Hi, Draco. How are you?"
"Fabulous," Draco drew a few feet closer, leaving a three foot distance between himself and Hermione. "How are you?"
"Great! Harry's visiting today, at 8 pm." She told.
"Oh. That's fantastic. I heard Weasley visited yesterday?"
"Yeah, Ron did visit yesterday."
"Didn't give you a hard time now, did he?" Draco looked concerned.
"Not at all! As a matter of fact, he came to apologize."
Draco smiled, noticing Pansy slamming the fork to the table.
"That's awesome." He said.
"Isn't it? I forgave him, of course. To be honest, I actually missed him. He was my best friend after all. It's really not a problem that he _"
"Dracey!" Pansy shouted, trying to cut Hermione off. Draco's blood boiled at the word, "won't you join us?"
"You were saying?" Draco inquired, ignoring Pansy.
"Wouldn't it be ridiculous if I broke our eight years of friendship over all that. How immature would that be if I'd not speak to him just because he _"
Pansy had stood up now, her cold eyes fixed on Hermione, as she advanced forward. Neville spotted danger too, as he drew his wand and stood up. Draco turned back, covering Hermione from  Pansy, as she directed her wand at Hermione.
"What are you doing, talking to filth like her?" Pansy asked, as every one in the Great Hall watched, their expressions rigid.
Neville took a step closer, ready to fire a curse if Pansy showed any sign of attacking Draco or Hermione.
Pansy forced holding Draco's hand, as he jerked it away saying, "Show some respect."
"What - I demand - are you doing, talking to that mudblood?" Pansy seemed as if she'd kill Hermione with her stares.
"How many times do I have to tell you not to call her a mudblood!?" Draco said, his eyes burning with anger, trying not to hurt Pansy.
"Draco," Pansy said sweetly. "I know you too well. You wouldn't even look a mudblood directly in the eyes! You aren't a blood-traitor, being friends with that filth ... I just refuse to believe it. Some one's cursed you - Love Potion perhaps?"
She sneered at Hermione, clearly pointing her out, as Hermione said calmly, "I don't need a Love Potion, Parkinson. You on the other hand are in desperate need of some. Want the recipe?"
"Why you filthy little -!" Pansy tried to curse Hermione, as Draco took out his wand.
"Enough, Parkinson!" he said, "if you ever call her a mudblood again, I'll make sure the Headmistress deals with you."
"What," Pansy asked unbelievingly, "do you mean? Why'd you support her? What do you have to do with her?"
Draco stared directly into Pansy's eyes, "She's my girlfriend." he spat.
The effect of these words was tremendous, as if Draco had thrown a bucket of ice cold water on everybody's heads: the Hufflepuffs gave a confused look to Hermione; Luna smiled, failing to hide her shock; Neville dropped his wand, staring at Draco, his mouth wide open; Seamus tried hard not to laugh; and Zabini tried to put on a shocked expression.
"You're joking right?" Pansy said, laughing hysterically.
"I am as serious as ever." Draco said, feeling uncomfortable at the stares Hermione and him were receiving.
"I can somehow believe in your friendship ... but you can't possibly be dating." Neville said.
"We are ..." Hermione stammered, as cheers exploded at the almost empty House Tables. The Hufflepuffs were cheering, Seamus put his fingers in his mouth to let out a whistle and Luna just smiled, and Zabini gave the impression of a cold statue, his expression unpredictable.
Pansy's expression was rigid: her nose wrinkled up disbelievingly as she said, "B-but it was obvious t-that y-you liked m-me!"
"No Pansy, I'll restate that for you. You thought it was obvious that I liked you."
"Draco ... you can-n't be! She's t-tricking you ... she's using L-love Potion!"
"No she isn't ."
There was a sudden outburst in the Hall.
"Parkinson, you liar!" said Susan Bones.
"You aren't dating Malfoy! You're a b*tch for spreading awful awful rumors about Malfoy and Granger!" Seamus shouted.
"You good-for-nothing rumor spreading asshole!" Hannah Abott said.
"Draco deserved better than you, seeing he's changed into a positively good man. He couldn't afford to make the mistake of choosing you over Hermione." Neville said.
"They're better off with eachother. You don't deserve him." Justin Finch-Fletchley piped up.
"They were made for eachother, Pansy." Luna said dreamily.   
Pansy screwed up her nose and stomped off saying, "I don't even like you. I wanted you to stay away from that mudblood ... but you don't care for yourself."
Everyone stared wildly at Draco and Hermione for minutes before resuming their work. Draco was so happy Parkinson had left his ass alone, he might have kissed Trevor the Toad.
"You just made it public, Draco. Do you have any idea how wildly this'll spread?" Hermione asked.
"Exactly. I was done pretending, and I wanted everybody to know about us. I can't take it anymore." Draco answered.
Hermione's eyes had lightened up, as she smiled slyly saying, "What about the 'analyzing each other's personality' part?" She asked.
"I think we've already done that." Draco smirked. This was after a long time that he'd smirked, and Hermione was happy to see him like that. 

I'm happy that I finally managed to publish this (despite the conflicts), and I have been trying to publish this since yesterday but wattpad sucks sometimes.