SEDUCING MALFOY

Summary: The truth is sometimes hard to believe. She knew, if they got into a relationship it would be destroyed. But she loved him. And he had no feelings for her at all . . . Until she tried to change that. HG/Draco

CHAPTER ONE: The First Step

I didn't want it to happen.

I don't even think I fully believe it *is* happening.

But, as I reread all the words I had written in my diary for the years since I came to Hogwarts, it definitely shows. I didn't recognize it before, because I didn't *want* to think it could possibly become true. What would Harry and Ron think? What would everybody else think? It was forbidden. I knew it was forbidden. Not by society, as much as the unwritten rules that everyone came to learn one way or another. By some one else: older or wiser, or by experience. Which was what I was going through at that moment.

And the one entry that sticks out in my mind, the one that proves all of it true, happened so long ago, not too long before I got Petrified:

Draco is riding on my last nerves. Everything he says to me hits me like a brick, and his comment on Mudbloods just makes me want to scream! Why have such terrible people at a school, when we could just get *rid* of them and not have to worry about it anymore? He thinks he so smart, and that people like him because of his stupid smirk he gives off. The one that I've grown so accustomed to seeing that it doesn't even bother me anymore. He words really don't, either, because I'm used to hearing them. Yes, they *do* sting - a lot - but it's less when it's Draco. And it really is . . . odd . . . to be saying this. Much less writing it down - but - maybe he's not so bad as we think . . . I went to the Library the other day, to look up anything I could find about the secret chamber in this school . . . and he was there, sitting at the table I usually occupy, holding a book. "You're in my seat, Malfoy," I had snapped, for that's how I've always addressed him. Cruelly. Angrily. And so *why* do I feel it's a false facade?

He only grinned, and smiled, his stupid smirk that haunts my dreams, and slid the book across the table, into my hands. I only glanced at the title on it and pushed it back at him. "What do you *want,* Malfoy? What are you doing?" a demand. From me. And I regretted saying it, too.

"I'm leaving, that's what I'm doing. I thought you were a smart person. But you're really just a pathetic Mudblood." and he went to leave.

Oh! The anger I felt inside of me then - but couldn't put it into words. Instead, I stuck out my tongue behind his back - and to my surprise, he saw it, and stuck out his, too!

Why do I feel like laughing, when clearly it was his sign of hate? And, when did I begin to call him Draco??

And now it is my sixth year, and I can't quit thinking about him. I dream about killing him, and being happy about it, but once I awaken - it's a different feeling. Like I'm being tugged two ways. And I hated it with a passion.

This morning, I went down to the Great Hall for breakfast and sat down beside Harry and Ron, who were quibbling about Quidditch teams, and why the other had won. Something like that, anyway. My thoughts weren't focused on them, and I wasn't even aware I was eating the food I hated. My gaze was on a certain sixteen year old Slytherin , who was smirking at the guys beside him. I wondered then - how could he be evil *all* the time? How could he have so many rude things to say to somebody before they got old and lost their affect? And why was it that he never smiled, only smirked all the time?

"Hermione, are you aware of the fact that you're eating blueberry oatmeal?" Ron asked, waving a hand in front of my face.

"Huh?" and that's when I looked down at the food I had been stuffing my face with.

Oh - my insides churned! Oatmeal! It looked like vomit, and always would to me! How had I stuffed that down my throat, when it looked like it had come from someone else's? I had to have been extremely preoccupied!

And here were Ron and Harry, still waiting for a response from me, as I flustered, and tried to sooth my insides by drinking two glasses of Pumpkin Juice. "I think I've developed a taste for it - that's all." and my insides screamed at me "How could you do it, Hermione?!"

Harry and Ron exchanged glances. "Alright . . . Who were you looking at, anyway?"

And without meaning to, I looked toward Draco's table, before looking back, mentally shooting myself. He followed my gaze, and his grew hard. "Malfoy? You were looking at *Malfoy*?" utter disgust was all over his words. The hate he felt towards the platinum blonde boy was obvious to someone who didn't even knew their conflicts.

"I was just thinking hateful thoughts of the things he called me the other day!" said I, a little to rushed.

"Were you?" Harry asked, offhandedly., it seemed he, too, had a lot on his mind.

"Yes. I was. And if you don't mind - I think I'm going to go . . . I have decided I don't like oatmeal after all."

"Yeah!" Ron called as I raced for the nearest bathroom. "And it doesn't help that you are allergic to blueberries!"

~~~~~~~

Snape's class was the one class I looked most forward to that day, though I had no idea why, since that was the class I detested most normally.

The long lesson dragged by, until the last couple of minutes when he told us of his plans.

Snape stood in front of the class and announced that we would have to be separated into pairs. -boy and girl pairs - and then read off names of people to be put together "at random" . Although it seemed he had already chose them. The ones he knew would drive each other absolutely crazy. "Harry Potter and Pansy," he didn't even call out her last name, and that thought vaguely crossed my mind as Harry reluctantly made his way towards her, his shoulders drooping. "Ronald Weasely and Millicent . . ." Ron looked very scared for a moment, and then quietly made his way to the huge girl he would be working with.

Snape read down his mental list, on and on it seemed to last, until neither I, nor Draco had partners. "And last, but not least, Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger." and my heart seemed to shrivel up and die, and Draco made his way toward me, his eyes locked with mine, but up to the brim with anger and coldness. And, it was such a shame. Because Draco's eyes are so beautiful you could get lost in them. But nobody wants to get lost in something that was scary and cold. Not even Voldemort would like that.

"Listen, Granger, I know you are very smart and you like to win your house lots and lots of points," his voice was made falsetto as he taunted me. But then changed back to normal. "But *I* am smart too, and damned if I'll be reduced to being dumber than a stupid Mudblood. So, here's the deal: we work *together* on this project, and if you find out more than I do - then you let *me* know about it, so I don't seem like a total and complete asshole who made you do all the work." and he finished, smirking, obviously pleased with himself.

I blinked at him, and turned my voice just as cold and sarcastic as he could make his, "Malfoy, if I find out more than you do, on whatever this project is, then I will take all the credit for it, and you *will* seem like a complete asshole who made me do all the work. Do you expect me to believe that if *you* find out more than I do you will share the news with you? I am not stupid, so you can forget it. It's ever man, or woman for their self."

He let out air through his nose loudly, and looked at Snape, who was glancing at all of the "couples" he had made, instead of explaining to us his project.

"Fine, Granger. I didn't expect you to go along with my plan. You *could* make it war, and have us *both* look stupid and fail the project if one of us gets it wrong . . . or *you* could think of an idea that tops mine, and we'll go along with *it*."

"You'd agree to my idea?" I asked, with doubt in my voice, and a little bit of humour.

"As long as it's not fucking stupid, I'll agree to it. I need to get a higher score in this class or my father will -" he stopped, realizing it was *me* he was talking to, and not one of his friends. "None of your business. And you are wasting my precious time. Do we have a deal or not?"

I thought a moment, and agreed his plan probably *was* best. "Fine. We'll go with your idea. But if I find out that you've been holding back on me, Malfoy, I *will* outsmart you. I'm smart enough.."

"Obviously you aren't, or you'd be in Ravenclaw." he said, smugly.

"And that same goes for *you*" said I, before Professor Snape explained to us out project.

"You will be given a racoon," he said, looking at everyone's faces. "And this racoon will have three certain spells on it. Something you haven't heard of before. You will have exactly two weeks to find out what is wrong with your animal, and you will explain - each one of you - in detail, about how you found out your jinxes, and you will perform the counter curse. This counts as a *test* grade so you better not come unprepared." he glared at Neville, who seemed to shrink in size. "And if you *lose* your racoon, you will *not* be getting a new one."

Draco and I looked at each other a moment, and he looked away, glancing across the room at Harry, who was getting into a major argument with Pansy. He seemed to argue with people more and more as the day would progress, but in that class alone, he lost us fifty points and got a detention.

Draco looked at me and smirked, once again. "It seems you can't win anyway. No matter how *great* and *wonderfully smart* you Gryffindors are , you will still lose points. And, if you withhold information on me - Snape will make it seem like *you* were trying to make *me* into an idiot, and you will lose your points."

"Malfoy, I said I would not withhold information. And, Snape *also* said - in case you weren't listening - that if we *both* do not present information, then we will *both* fail the project." and that was something to make his smirk flicker, but reappear.

"Yes. So you need to remember that." there was something about him - something different, that raced through his beautiful blue eyes. Something I hadn't seen before, and couldn't recognize, and it wasn't until we got out racoon that I found out.

I held him up by his tail, for every other part of him was pussed and blueish orange. His head seemed to look like and apple, while the rest of him looked normal. His tail wasn't affected, and for that I was grateful. "I don't know . . . What do *you* think it is?" and I held him towards Draco, who backed away.

"Get it away from me!" he hissed, his lips trembling.

"Oh, Malfoy, he is *not* contagious. He won't ruin your *perfect* face or anything like that."

"I don't fucking care!" he hissed again. And the it hit me.

"Why, Malfoy . . . You aren't *afraid* of racoons, are you?"

The words to make few heads turn and stare.

Draco tried to keep his cool, his eyes now full of the emotion I had missed earlier: fear. And I did feel sorry for him then, as he looked around the room, at the people staring, and his hands trembled under the table.

I pulled the racoon away from him. And laughed. "Well, you could have fooled me, Malfoy," and the heads returned to what they were doing before I interrupted them.

Draco looked at me, strangely. No emotions in his eyes, for they were easy to see the emotions, but hard to tell what they were. He looked at the racoon, then into my eyes, then across the classroom at the people who were no longer staring at him.

Snape dismissed us, and Draco and I packed up out things, our elbows bumping from time to time. "It's okay, Malfoy," I said, grabbing the racoon and stuffing him into the cage I had made just minutes before. "I'll take him this whole time. I'll share my information with you, so you don't look like a complete asshole who let me do all the work. And - you don't even have to say thank you."

He stared at me again, but still said nothing.

"And you had better share information with me, too, Malfoy. Or I will not care if we fail this class."

"Yes, you will," he snapped, back to his normal self again. "And I *said* I'd share my work with you, okay? But, so none of us does more, we'll have to work together. Come to the library tonight after supper, and bring your . . . *thing* with you." and he grabbed his books, and left, hitting my shoulder as he passed.

A strange feeling floated in me, and that's when I realized it.

When the *hell* had I fallen for Malfoy?!