The iPod Shuffle Challenge

1) Pick a character/pairing/fandom you like.

2) Put your iPod on shuffle.

3) Write a ficlet related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start as the song begins, and stop when it finishes. No lingering afterwards.

4) Do ten, then post.

A./N: I cheated. For #6 and 9, I replayed the songs to have time to finish.

Pairing: Draco/Hermione

Fandom: Harry Potter.

1. Perfect for Me - Show Me the Skyline

Years ago, Draco had met Hermione Granger in Diagon Alley. The girl had the bushiest hair of anyone he'd ever seen, she tripped over her own feet and she was in a dreadful temper by the time their conversation had ended. He had, after all, been forced to act like she was beneath him, as his mother peered over her shoulder at him.

By the time they met on the Hogwarts Express, he'd dismissed his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle vanished in pursuit of food. She had tucked her feet beneath her on her seat, already in her Hogwarts robes. He sat with her.

"I suppose you're here to insult me some more?"

"No. I want to know what you think of it," he said, gesturing towards her book.

She smiled.

In that moment, she was perfect, and he decided exactly what he wanted.

2. Ugly Heart - G.R.L.

Locked up by her auror ex-boyfriend, Hermione sighed. "Just my damn luck," she snarled, glaring at him. "You would come find me, wouldn't you. Not enough to lock me up, you have to come mock me."

"Hermione, you're being ridiculous," he simpered, "and you're making a scene."

"Can it, Draco, I know exactly what I'm doing."

"Leaving the most attractive person you have, and will ever, meet?"

"It just blows your mind, doesn't it, that I'm not in love with you anymore?"

He stared at her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She checked it off on her fingers, examining her nails. "Okay, so you're quite nice to look at. You're pretty. You've got that little beauty mark on your neck, like a label, hey, look at me, I'm damn fine. Your face is a gorgeous work of art, you could easily be a model."

"So why leave me?"

"It's just such a pity, Draco, that you're beautiful - but inside, you're bloody hideous."

3. Sacrimony (Angel of Afterlife) - Kamelot

"What do you want me to say? What do they know that I don't?"

"I can't tell you that."

"Malfoy, I hate not knowing. You have to tell me what they see that I don't. You can't not tell me, not after you just walked in and kissed me like I'm your girlfriend or something." She laughed.

His heart sank back towards the icy pit she'd pulled it out of all those years ago. "Yeah," he muttered, "completely ridiculous."

"Malfoy? What's that tone?"

"They wiped your memory, Herm - Granger. It's gone. You can't get it back."

"Don't be stupid. Just go get Harry, and Ron, they'll be able to fix it."

He stared at her with absolute pity. "You've forgotten everything."

4. Far From Home - Five Finger Death Punch

Hermione sat alone in the library, lost once more in the carnival of souls. Around her, students milled and asked and disrespected each other. She could remember before, when she'd had a future beyond being a bloody librarian, loathed and talked about by every single child. But reality had been twisted, her secrets re-shaped, her stories re-written. Her past was a tapestry of faces she'd never see again, since beyond the students, she could never legally glance upon another pureblood again. The carved insult in her skin, the symbol burned into her wrist, and the magical chain around her ankle were just reminders of her crime.

Being born, as best she could tell. Loving someone above her station.

It was almost like the entire system had been reshaped specifically to take away her shot at happiness after the loss of the war.

That was why, when the huge oak doors creaked open, she didn't look up. She didn't flinch when she felt the soft tingle of a spell cast over her. She didn't dare glance up, speaking softly, "Magic is not permitted in the library. Not by students."

"Good thing I'm not a student, then."

She cracked her neck brutally, she looked up so fast, colour draining from her face. "Draco? This is a trick. They're trying to drag me down again."

He smiled sadly, shook his head. "I promised I'd return for you."

5. Love in the 21st Century - Neon Trees

"This entire system is flawed, it's twisted. I'm not impressed, Draco, at all. You don't ever mean a word you say to me, it means nothing to you at all, does it? But of course I still want to see you again. I can't not see you. You're like a drug, and the way things have evolved, there's no way I can be rid of you."

Her boyfriend, all shades of white and black, lifted his beer to his lips and rolled his eyes, not answering.

"Honestly, I don't understand you at all. I'd need to dissect your brain to glean any information about you at all, wouldn't I? You're nonsense."

"Hermione, love," he set his glass down, standing up and taking her hands in his. "We're in love. You can question everything you like, but there's never going to be a logic to it. You can criticise it, me, as much as you want, I'm not going to stop you. I'm in love with that part of you as well, Merlin forbid. This is the twenty-first century, after all."

"And?" She stared at him, brown eyes fixed hopefully and beseechingly on molten silver.

"It's not going to change anything."

6. Wake Me Up - Avicii

Hermione had nightmares about groping aimlessly through the dark, directed by the sounds of a heartbeat in the distant. Voices twisted and warped in the shadows, colouring the dream and turning it into Hell. "You'll never understand." "You're just dreaming." "You're just too young." "You're not anybody." "Freak." "Monster." "Mudblood."

Then, always, "Wise up, Hermione, or you'll miss out on reality."

Draco's dreams were the opposite, brightness and light and colours more vivid than anything he'd ever really seen. He was exactly where he'd always felt at home, in the garden at the Manor with the peacocks. He had his theories, his beliefs: mudbloods are impure, purebloods are superior, he was better, always, always better. Then acid voices spat at him, "You'll never have any chances." "You're family is a waste of space." "You're wasting your life."

Then, again and again, "Open your eyes, Draco. You're missing the point."

Things eventually changed, of course, as all things must. Their dreams tripped into each other: light seeped into the muggleborns, leeched from the purebloods'. The whispers became more similar, less distinct, like both were caught up in an exploration, a journey towards something.

"You can't carry the weight of the world." "You need to share the burden." "Come on, you need to plan for change." "You won't be young forever, like it or not." "You're equal, not better, not worse." "You need to get wiser. You need to get older. You need to find yourself."

Finally, needfully, they bumped into each other with work. Both were in the wrong place at what they saw as the wrong time, books cascading to the floor in a hectic heap. "I must be lost. Sorry, Malfoy."

"I didn't notice I got turned around. My bad, Granger."

They both picked up the books closest to them, picking up books that must belong to the other. "Is this a book on gardening?"

"Yes, I want to learn how to maintain a sanctuary. You know, a peaceful abode." Odd question to ask. Why the surprise? "...This is a book on magical genealogies."

He flushed. "I'm looking into the real origins of magical power. Obviously it's not just upbringing and parentage..."

They stared at each other over their stacks of books, both coming to a conclusion and speaking in perfect unison.. "Join me for lunch at the Leaky Cauldron?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world."

7. Illuminati - Anonymous

"Eurgh, what a waste of effort."

"Malfoy?"

"Voting. Come on, we don't really have any power. As educated people, we take a little critical thinking. No way would we know everything."

"Oh."

"Don't get offended, Granger. I'm just saying, maybe you don't see it, but I'm telling you, whatever they're telling us is a lie. They make promises they can't keep, demand things that would require incredible magic."

"But there are powerful wizards and witches out there, people completely capable of - what are you doing?"

"Getting comfortable. Stroke my hair. That's better. Go on."

"I was reading, thanks, Draco."

"You were justifying. Go. On."

"Right. People completely capable of these extremes."

"Life from death?"

"Technically, that's what life is, a constant exchange. It's just a new world order, Malfoy."

"Liar. You don't believe that at all. They make us sick so they can control us properly. Think about it. They control the schools, the classes, the health care that St Mungos will provide. They tax us because they need money. Power's in the money, Granger, let that be known."

"Then why are you running for a higher position in the Ministry, if you're so cynical?"

"I've got you to keep me real."

"Heh. That you do."

8. Takedown - Blue Stahli

Spells were flying everywhere, dreadful, evil beams clashing with better, safer, minor variants. It was obvious who was on which side.

Except for him. He seemed kind of suicidal, taking her on directly. Hermione was not amused. "Lower your weapon, Malfoy."

"Absolutely not," he sneered. "I want to be the one who takes you down. I want to be the one who breaks your dignity and your record. I think you'd make a beautiful suicide, Granger, and I intend to see it through."

"What're you gonna say when I give back everything and then some, using as much humane tactics as possible?"

"I lack those constraints." His sneer became a derogatory grin. "Die, Granger," he said, and the dance began.

It felt like hours, but eventually the two were forced to stop fighting, gasping for breath. First he, then her, removed their helmets, and the war scene flicked and fragmented, the cold white reality of the virtual immersion chamber becoming apparent. "You cheated!"

"And how would I do that? You programmed it, not me!"

"Oh, shut up, Draco. Both of us know you're better at this than you pretend to be. You just keep letting me win. You think I can't tell? Best three out of five?"

He coloured. "Make it four out of seven and you've got yourself a deal."

"You're insane. But fine, if that's what you want..."

She grinned. "Someone wants to get lucky tonight."

9. Don't You Worry Child - Swedish House Mafia

"I was a child once, you know."

"Of course, Mister Malfoy."

"I was practically royalty. My parents loved me. I was perfect."

"Most of us have that delusion, Mister Malfoy."

"My dad said to me once, 'Don't you worry, there's a plan for you.' He swore it, would have made a blood oath if mother hadn't intervened."

"A blood oath with a child is a little inappropriate."

"Then I started at Hogwarts. There was a girl, there, and she wasn't like anything I'd ever seen before. She was so different, not perfect, but at the same time, so perfect. Together, we could've ruled the world. She had the brains, I had the power."

"What happened to her?"

"Her? She died. Inside. She got into fights with her friends, she changed completely. She was nothing but her studies. She was as good as dead."

"I imagine that was quite traumatic for you. But she was not dead at that point, not really."

"When a person receives the Dementors' Kiss, doctor, don't you call them dead?"

"Usually, I call them soulless."

"Then she was that. It doesn't matter. My father spoke to me again when I went back home for break, and I said it was terrible, that I was miserable and hated being powerless. Then he promised me again, 'there's a plan for you'."

"And?"

"Eventually I realised my stupidity. It was obvious, in retrospect. She was - what's the word - drugged. He used a muggle drug to change her. Had it slipped into her drink every morning. I only noticed because I sat with her once, and she was quite calm and happy, but then she took a sip, her eyes glazed over, and she wasn't all there anymore. It was horrible."

"Again, Mister Malfoy, such delusions are not uncommon."

"It wasn't a delusion. I approached my father and asked him. Guess what he said."

"'There's a plan for you'."

"Exactly. I couldn't let him do that. Not if it meant hurting her."

"He could have been lying. It could be coincidence that he chose those words. He didn't have to die."

The third person spoke up at last, her brown eyes fixing on the psychiatrist, her fingers intertwined with her lovers pale ones. "He did if I was to have my mind."

10. Mirrors - Justin Timberlake

In Grimauld Place, there is a room in which the walls are made of mirrors.

It's an optical illusion. The floor is black carpet, but the rest of the room is mirrored surfaces, even the back of the door.

Hermione found this room by mistake, and it seemed to relax her. She would curl up, pressing her damaged arm against the cool glass, and would trace her fingers over her own reflection. It wasn't that she particularly liked what she saw. In fact, she hated it. What it was, was a memory. She was staring at her reflection, trying to find what it was that he had seen when he promised he'd be back with the others. She closed her eyes.

Of course Ron had botched the mission. He'd almost gotten them all caught, while a miserably impatient Hermione had curled up at headquarters with a book. Harry had explained it after, between gasps of pain as Ginny furiously kneaded her hands into his pain-filled muscles.

Ron got Draco caught in a pique of rage. The Death Eaters wanted him so badly, their traitor. Of course, when he offered himself to them to distract them from the pursuit of the others, they'd been so easily distracted. Harry had said they'd heard screams.

He was terrified of the Cruciatus curse, Hermione knew that. How miserable, that he succumb to that because of Rons' stupid mistake.

He was just a stupid mistake.

When the door opened, Hermione cast a blind spell over her shoulder. "I won't forgive you! Ronald Billius Weasley, you leave me the hell alone or I will hex you so many ways sideways - how dare you take - take him from me - you had no right -"

"Ow. They specifically said not to do acrobatics like this," a familiar voice groaned. Her eyes flew open and her gaze shot to his, his molten silver eyes pressing on her back. She lit up instantly, shocked and thrilled. The door behind him was wide open, but neither cared as they reached for each other, losing each other in the passion of their reunion.

"I don't want to lose you again," she gasped, she clung to him. "Please don't go."

"I'm not going anywhere. Hermione, I love you, and you make me better. I am a reflection of your best intentions...once I figured that much out, it was easy to get out."

"Promise?"

"Merlin, you are the love of my life."

Her heart caught in her throat, and she kissed him deeply. "And you're mine."

A/N: 1-Draco is secretly very kind to Hermione.

2-Draco is an auror, Hermione a criminal, and they're no longer together.

3-Draco and Hermione dated, but Hermione lost her memories of this. Implied death of Harry & Ron.

4-Voldemort wins, Hermione is stuck in the Hogwarts library with limited contact with other of-age magical people, and Hermione and Draco dated.

5-Hermione and Draco are both muggles, or at least living as.

6-Hermione and Draco both work for the Ministry.

7-Hermione and Draco are together, Draco's running for a position in the Ministry, and he doesn't believe in democracy.

8-Magic is a game, Hermione and Draco work for a game design company.

9-Draco killed his father to save Hermione.

10-The war stretched on longer, Draco joined the Order of the Phoenix, Hermione loved him.