Fated Lovers

Flashback, September 1st, Hogwarts
Start-of-Term Feast | First year of school.

The sorting hat had made its decisions and everyone was happy to begin the new year. Draco was satisfied, he was sorted into Slytherin, as expected. Most Slytherins already knew him just by his last name, so he started on the right track. They were eating and drinking pumpkin juice as they chatted and had fun with the rest of the house members. 

Suddenly, there was a horrible sound. A screech, followed by the sound of beatings and bumps. The huge doors of the dinner hall opened, as one of the teachers (whose name Draco found out later) came running and screaming. “There’s a troll in the dungeon! Troll in the dungeon!”, he yelled as he stopped on his track, and fainted from fear. 

Even the teachers were confused, and every kid inside the dinner hall began screaming, Draco included. Suddenly, Headmaster dumbledore yelled “Silence”, shutting down every single noise in the whole hall. “Everyone please do not panic. Prefects lead students to their house dorms. Teachers, follow me to the dungeons.”
Organised by Dumbledore, every student began following their house prefect. Malfoy was stunned at the headmaster’s power and leadership, he was amazed. While he followed the rest of the group, he overheard some Gryffindor students talking.
“Where is she?”, one asked. The other boy shrugged his shoulders. “I haven’t seen her since she went to look for the bathroom.”

“You think she’s still there?”, another boy asked. “Is that safe?”
“The troll is in the dungeons, not the bathroom.”, a girl added. 

Something inside Malfoy woke up. Probably fueled by Dumbledore’s act of greatness, he decided to man up and look for the girl in distress. He quickly moved into the crowd and disappeared into the stairs. It wasn’t easy to find the girls’ bathroom, the castle was huge, and Draco was not someone who could remember paths. He got to the entrance of a girls bathroom and suddenly, he felt a bit shy. The sign on the door marked a rule. 

Only girls were allowed. He was about to break a rule on his first day of school. He doubted, he was nervous now. Then a scream of a girl came from inside the bathroom, and all nervousness and fear was shut down by heroicness. 

He got in, just to find a horrendous troll destroying the stalls. The girl was hiding under the debris, but he could see a piece of her robe.
“Move!”, yelled Draco as he saw the troll was about to hit right where she was. She quickly moved and ran through another stall. Now Draco had caught the creature’s attention, and the blow was going to hit him this time. He tried to move but now, he was paralyzed with fear, he wanted to run but his legs and brain wouldn’t connect. 

A hand grabbed his arm, he noticed it because of how cold the hand was. The girl, tiny, full of dust grabbed him firmly and yelled “Run!”. His body reacted and they both got out, entering the boys bathroom. She got into one of the stalls and he hid in another. The troll was quicker than they expected it to be, and it entered the bathroom breaking every sink on its way in. The creature went to the girl’s row of stalls and began opening doors with a huge mallet, making horrid sounds. Draco saw this and heroism stroke again. He yelled from inside his stall making the creature move towards him. At that moment, he crawled from one to another, getting away from it. He looked to the girl’s side and saw her crawling too.
“Come”, she mouthed desperately. He saw the troll looking to the other side and he quickly crawled to her stall. They were both hiding together now, panicking. They were too young to be living this, and they hugged each other in fear while the creature destroyed everything around them. They were still embraced in a hug, now crying, probably thinking how stupid it was to be killed on your first day at Hogwarts. 

Suddenly, the troll fell dead. Some footsteps came closer and closer, they didn’t break their hug, they were too scared to do so. Someone opened the stall door.
Severus Snape, one of the teachers. He looked at them in confusion.
“Mr. Malfoy”, he said. “Headmaster Dumbledore made it pretty clear that students should be inside their dorms.”, he looked at the girl. “And Miss Granger, you almost got another student killed by trying to help you.” They let go of each other, embarrassed and afraid of what was coming. “If you thought this stupid act of heroism would get you house points, you were wrong. Minus ten for each of you.”

Draco had completely forgotten about that memory, and now, he wondered if she also remembered that. Was that traumatic experience also his first time meeting Granger? 

He sighed. It had been a week since they decided to fake a relationship in front of Weasley, yet, they hadn’t seen each other for days. They were stupid, he thought, because they made an excellent plan, but they never figured out how to carry it. 

Was he supposed to kiss Granger?  Was he allowed to even hug her? They hadn’t discussed ANY terms for this fake relationship and it was driving him insane.

Hermione was also a mess. She thought about breaking this implicit idea, but there wasn’t any other better thing she could think of that would piss Ron that much. It was the perfect way to break his heart and stomp on his ego, yet, it scared her a lot.

The problem was Malfoy, she knew he was one hundred percent capable of faking it, and she could even imagine him acting like she was the true love of his life without even caring about her. She was afraid of herself. Her only ‘something’ was Ron, she had a huge crush on Victor Krum and he was just her date for the Yule ball. In her mind, everything was accompanied by a huge ‘what if’. What if Malfoy kissed her? What if he hugged her? What if she suddenly found herself fancying him? 

They both tried their best to bury those fears. That night, she received an owl with a message from Draco. “Library, restricted section. Meet me there in half an hour.”

She had begun wandering, why the restricted area? She was completely sure if someone saw them there, there would be problems. If a teacher saw them, they’d be in detention, and if a student saw them, she imagined the next column on the Daily Prophet being something like ‘Malfoy-Granger lustful session of study’. She smiled to herself, Ron would be horrified.

It was late. 12pm to be exact. 

Hermione apparated at the library, right in her usual spot. She had to be careful not to make any noise, or the ghosts would kick her out. She walked until she got to the door of the restricted section, and saw Malfoy standing against a bookshelf.

‘He looks good’, she thought to herself. It wasn’t a thought that never crossed her mind. Back in the day when girls organised sleepovers, a common topic was ‘who’s the cutest boy in each house’, and she’d never admitted it, but Malfoy was her top choice for Slytherin. 

She pushed the door very carefully, to avoid making any noise. Even if the door didn’t, Malfoy noticed her presence, and looked at her with a tired smile. 

“Hey”, she said. “What happened?”

She wasn’t sure what he wanted, and she thought it must’ve been urgent if he called her to meet at this hour, in this place.

“I’m too tired, but I can’t sleep, Granger.”, he said, yawning. She looked at him, confusion in her eyes. He knew what she was thinking. What the hell did she have to do with that?

He continued. “So I thought maybe we could hang out, and establish some… rules. To our plan, I mean.”

She felt her body tremble. She had been thinking about that too, but she didn’t know if she wanted to talk about that right now. She swallowed, “Rules? Like what?”

He rested his head against the books, looking at the ceiling while thinking. His eyes were a blueish grey, Hermione noticed.

“Like what ‘couple-like’ things do we allow each other to do. And when are we allowed to do them…”, he replied. His eyes were still fixed on the ceiling. 

“You mean, kissing and such?” Hermione asked, this time, she was shy. She didn’t even look at his face while asking. 

“That.”, he said. “We agree that we are allowed to do that in front of Weasley, right?”

He looked at her now, she felt his eyes fixed on her face. She nodded. “Y-yes.”, 

“But doing it just in Ron’s presence would make it clear that it’s just to make him mad.”, he added. “Am I right?”

She nodded again. “I’ve been thinking about that too.”, she said, pensative. “We should fake proximity in front of everyone else too.”

Now it was his turn to nod. But after nodding, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her close. She let out a small squeak, to which he laughed in response. “I don’t know what you and Weasley used to do… but you’re not supposed to squeak, Granger.”

“You surprised me, idiot.”, she exclaimed. 

Now he pulled her even closer, their bodies touching each other. She felt her body burning, and she tried to convince herself it was because she feared Malfoy. It wasn’t. 

Draco didn’t hide his sensations. His cheeks were flushed and his heart was beating loudly.
He didn’t believe it was Granger causing that, he felt it was simply because he’s been lacking some female company lately. Granger had been in a relationship, he hadn’t. He wasn’t a prude or anything, he was just too much of a red flag to be bothering women. He wasn’t interested in one night stands, either. Theo had tried to lure him into nightclubs and parties, but since Draco had an outstanding tolerance to alcohol, he was always aware of what he shouldn’t do. And making out with random girls wasn’t on his plans.

So, he guessed having a fake relationship might give him some experience, while at the same time, not ruining anybody’s life. He wasn’t available for commitment, but if such commitment was fake, the rules didn’t apply. 

This time, it was Hermione who noticed his reaction. She smiled and hugged his back, making him blush even more. His usual pale face was now a peachy colour. 

“Are you nervous, Malfoy?”, she asked, a cocky tone in her voice.

He quickly shifted sides, and suddenly it was her against the bookshelf. “What, Granger?”

Hermione felt her knees weak, taken aback by his sudden change. He had his left hand pressed against the bookshelf, as his right hand touched her waist. “I think we need to get used to this, no one will buy our crap if we get this nervous.”, he finally said. 

His right hand left her waist to grab a small string of curly hair that had fallen in the middle of her forehead. He brushed it carefully behind her ear, as he let go of her and stepped back. 

“Y-yes. I think.. so.” She couldn’t say more. She was feeling too many things at once. 

“Well. We’ll have to take it easy, I guess.”, he said, and began walking away.
“Good night, Granger.”