Truth, Dare and Firewhis
Tuesday morning was upon Hogwarts and Draco found himself in the middle of therapy, sitting between Pansy and Blaise as usual, except that Hermione was on the other side of Pansy shooting him sympathetic smiles every now and then, Harry was sitting next to her stealing quick glances once every few minutes and Ginny was sitting right next to him, sending annoyed glares to Blaise, who was currently trying to flirt with her from the distance.
Draco thought it was a very strange morning even before he saw Hermione and Pansy gossiping in breakfast and Ginny and Blaise having an actual conversation without annoyed eyerolls and seductive smirks.
Then Hermione came to him at lunch and asked him to meet her in the library that day at 4:30 to work on the potions homework together for some reason. Draco thought it was a bit weird, but he agreed anyways since he didn't have any other plans.
Finally, when he was leaving the library around 6 pm, he ran into Harry and they started talking. It was just small talk, but Draco could feel himself relaxing when he was talking to the Golden Boy. He was going to need to be careful if he didn't want to end up spilling any secrets.
The rest of the week went by pretty much the same as the first day.
He would meet Hermione in the library to "work", but they always ended up just talking about different stuff. He couldn't help but to start noticing the little things about her. The way she would brush her hair behind her ear and blush after he made her laugh, that beautiful laugh, the way her eyes moved and seemed to be trying to read him every time he talked (which they probably were), or the subtle way her hands found their way to his arms every now and then. They also ended up finding a lot of common ground for conversations. It turned out that they had actually read several books that neither of them thought that anyone else knew. He felt comfortable around her, but he also noticed how he usually tried to keep their conversations away from his past and other touchy subjects. Sure, Hermione helped him not to feel lonely, but he still felt as if she didn't understand him as well as he would like her to.
After he left the library, he ran into Harry. He started to think that the Gryffindor waited for him, but he didn't feel bothered. He looked forward to it. The two boys walked forward without a specific destination. They ended up hanging out in the owlery, the clock tower balcony and even in the kitchens, where they stole a couple treacle tarts from some distracted elves. The conversations were mainly about classes, but sometimes they ended up discussing about the best brooms in the market or the best Quidditch team. Neither of them had yet brought up touchy subjects, mainly because neither of them wanted to talk about those themselves when the question inevitably went back to them, but also because the atmosphere around them was so peaceful and comfortable that they didn't want to spoil it.
Friday afternoon was a little different. Usually when Draco and Harry got to their common room, their friends were already hanging out in their own dorms, from which there were eight, two per house; but this time, it seemed like the two boys had arrived in the middle of a party.
The seventh and eight year common room was pretty crowded, with most of the students chatting among themselves and drinking what appeared to be, not only Butterbeer, but also Firewhisky.
No one payed them much attention as they walked towards the middle of the room, where there was an ongoing game of truth or dare, except that if someone wished not to fulfill either of them, they'd have to take a shot of Firewhisky.
Among the players were the new Slytherin-Gryffindor group: Pansy, Blaise, Ginny and Hermione, plus some other friends including Ron, Neville, Seamus, Dean and Theodore Nott.
The first thing the boys noticed wasn't Dean's hand on Seamus' leg, or how Luna had her arms around Neville's neck and seemed to be whispering sweet little nothings to his ear, but rather how amazingly drunk Hermione was.
It wasn't that she was half naked and dancing on a table or anything, she was still Hermione, and was probably still smarter than anyone in the room even with all that alcohol on her; but rather the way that her tie was a little looser than usual, how she had a permanent grin on her face, with her cheeks completely red and how she kept giggling at every little thing. Her body was laying completely on Pansy's shoulder, but the Slytherin girl didn't seem to mind. In fact, she looked pretty pleased with herself.
Draco figured out that she was probably the one that suggested truth or dare in the first place and somehow managed to get Hermione that drunk. The clever Slytherin.
As the two boys took a sit next to their correspondent best friends after putting their names in the enchanted Butterbeer bottle, the magical artifact spilled two names: Theodore and Neville.
-Longbottom; alright then, I dare you to kiss your girlfriend non-stop for the next two rounds.-
-Gee mate, for an ace you sure love to see people making out a lot- Exclaimed Seamus, who had his lips a bit swollen. It obviously was not the first time that Theodore chose that dare.
-That might be true mate, except kissing can be far more romantic than sexual, not that you'd know the difference being alone with Dean so much.-
The game went on for a while and most of the other students started returning to their dorms, but the group was still complete, even if Ron was already asleep in his seat.
Ginny had cat ears and whiskers thanks to Blaise, who was shirtless thanks to Pansy, who was taking a shot of Firewhisky after refusing to take a shot of veritaserum that Draco had offered her. Neville called it a night and helped Luna to her dorm before going to his own, Seamus and Dean followed after another hour and Theodore decided to do the same shortly after. Soon, only Pansy and Hermione were left.
-Pansy, I dare you to tell me who your crush is-
-I'll tell you if you tell me first-
-That's not fair!-
The common room was quiet, with only the sound of the fireplace. Pansy locked eyes with Hermione while wondering if she was still drunk, she then started leaning into her crush so slightly that the other girl didn't even notice, even when their faces were so close that Pansy could smell the faint smell of Firewhisky in Hermione's breath. She wanted to kiss her so badly, but hesitated. She didn't want their first kiss to be under the influence of alcohol.
-Draco- Hermione said
-What?- Pansy replied as she looked around to see if he was behind her or something.
-You asked me who my crush was, and... it's Draco-
Pansy stared at Hermione with a shocked yet hurt expression, which Hermione didn't really notice since she was, in fact, still very drunk.
-Now it's your turn, you have to answer the question too- Hermione giggled unaware of everything that had just happened.
Pansy hastily wiped a tear from her face and downed a big shot of Firewhisky before standing up and fleeing to her dorm, completely ignoring Hermione's confused calls after her.