By All Means, Enlighten Me

12 - The Date

The weekend arrived and Hermione woke, her stomach squirming like a thousand butterflies currently occupied her insides.

She was going on a date with Blaise Zabini. Weirdly enough, she wasn't nervous because she liked him, she was nervous because she didn't like him and thought it cruel to lead him on this way.

The only reason she had accepted the very forward and out of the blue gesture was because the first Quidditch match of the season was being played this afternoon and Blaise being Slytherin's star Chaser meant that going on a date with him would make Malfoy's morning a complete bucket of stress wondering just how far Hermione would take this prank war and what exactly she'd do to his most valuable player.

***

As anticipated, Draco sat at the Slytherin table, a complete mess. What if she kidnapped him? What if she injured him? What if she sabotages him so that Gryffindor wins today? BITCH!

Draco had seen Hermione looking over at him and shot her a menacing scowl. Hermione raised her eyebrows at him and Draco saw her mouth the words 'That was uncalled for..' to herself.

Draco seethed at the thought that she was going on a date with his star player. He had a good mind to ban Zabini from the date altogether!

After breakfast, Hermione waited at the entrance hall for Blaise. She was starting to get nervous only now just realising she didn't know him that well. What in Merlin's name would they talk about? Thought Hermione. Oh no..this was a very big mistake.

"Hey Granger, ready to go?" Blaise bounded up to her, wrapped in a Slytherin scarf and slightly out of breath.

"Ready as I'll ever be!" She replied.

"Great! Shall we?" He responded holding out his arm for her to take.

"Zabini!!"

Both Hermione and Blaise turned around to see a slightly disheveled Draco running towards them.

"Really Drake?" Blaise started. "Now?"

Draco shot him a dangerous look and Blaise turned to Hermione. "Will you give me a minute? I'm really sorry. He stresses out on game days."

"Oh no not at all!" Hermione said politely. She hung back as Blaise moved forward to address Draco.

"What Malfoy?"

Draco raised his eyebrows. Blaise only ever called him by his surname when he was genuinely ticked off with him. This made Draco even more unsettled.

"I just want to stress to you the importance of today's game. We need to beat Gryffindor in order to get that main lead right from the off." Hermione heard Draco saying to Blaise.

Blaise rolled his eyes at his Captain. "So that's the tactic you're sticking with is it? Gonna pretend that you need to see me about our game? Lame Drake!"

"What in Merlin's saggy left sack do you think I'm here for?!" Draco demanded.

Blaise laughed. "Don't insult my intelligence Draco. We both know you're here because of her."

Hermione's eyes widened as she realised they meant her. She spotted Luna and Neville and promptly wondered off toward them to strike up a pointless conversation.