Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger, and the Cult of Death {darkest_fate&Grimmdark}

[darkest_fate]

"This is outrageous!" Hermione Granger protested for what was perhaps the third time this hour. She stomped her foot again, knowing full well that the gesture looked rather childish. At the moment, the previous hero of the war against Voldemort, current Head Girl of Hogwarts and Gryffindor Prefect returned to finish her education was standing in detention. Or, to be more accurate, she was sitting outside in a hall, waiting for the detention to properly start. Not that Hermione hadn't earned detention before. There had been that incident with the dragon oh so many years ago, for starters. And nearly everyone had earned some form of detention when that detestable woman from the Ministry had been running things.

But this? This was not her fault.

Hermione glared across the hall where she sat at the real culprit. She'd actually been one to advocate for Draco Malfoy, if only partially on Harry's behalf. There had been some debate on whether to let any of the Slytherins (outrageous, and everyone knew it) or the previous Death Eaters (less outrageous) return to finish their education. Hermione had been rather vocal upon insisting that Malfoy and his friends had just as much right to finish their education as anyone else. While people had often listened to the "smartest witch of her age" previously, her newly minted "heroine" status gave her more leeway.

Apparently not enough, as had been made abundantly clear. Malfoy had been abusing his privileges, again and Hermione had been forced to step in, again. They'd barely been back at Hogwarts for a few months yet it felt like she was constantly telling her fellow prefect (she still wasn't sure how on earth Malfoy had "earned" his positions) to leave younger students alone. As if dealing with NEWTs wasn't hard enough, particularly since Hermione had picked up all the same ,rather difficult, subjects she'd been studying before she'd left with Harry on his quest. But quite frequently, she'd find him in open places, tormenting younger students (most frequently first years). It was odd, because she hadn't heard many complaints, yet whenever she happened to see him, it seemed as if he were about to torment someone.

So there Hermione sat, glowering. Her hair seemed to be as unruly as her mood, light brown messy ringlets framing her intelligent face. Hermione was technically quite pretty; she simply never dressed to accent it or did anything to enhance her looks. Bushy hair and a mostly makeup free face looked rather normal, almost blase in the grand scheme. Standard Hogwarts robes hung loose around a body that was admittedly a bit more lithe after a year or so of running around finding and destroying horcruxes. Hermione could still feel some of the scars from it, including the ones she'd picked up from Malfoy manor.

"I can't believe you," she said again, shooting another glare at Malfoy before looking at the door. Who was even responsible for this detention anyway? Hermione's had been assigned by the new head of Gryffindor house (McGonagall having taken over as Headmistress), so likely Malfoy had received the same. Hermione was almost hoping for Filch, or possibly Hagrid if she were quite lucky. Then again, she'd heard rumors that there may be unassigned detentions for older students, since Hogwarts was still dealing with staffing issues post-war...

 

[Grimmdark]

Draco was here to finish up his last year, after the struggles with the dark lord. He still didn't dare say the name that dread so many of the wizarding world, but it was all down hill from this point on. His father was taken to prison, leaving his mother alone at home trying to attend to family matters. Trying to keep the family business afloat all by herself, as he came back to try and win favor with the teachers. He was given the position of head boy to his amazement, it was also the fact that the mudblood spoke for him....he really needed to stop talking to her.

It was then that something else came up, another group of death eaters. They were zealot about him joining them to take over what wasn't finished, the dark lord was dead. Yet, they can never return to society and now want revenge. To kill the famous harry potter, but now as he is training to become an aururo it was hard to get to him. Ron wasn't really important to the cause, he was just a country bunkin with nothing of interest. He didn't even come back to Hogwarts, so that only left the smartest witch of this age from what they called her for so many years. She was the reason that the dark lord was defeated, so now the death cult wanted her dead.

To capture her was the best thing they could do to lure potter, so he was tasked with the duties to catch her. Find a way to get her out of the plans of the other death eaters, so he came up with a plan as he needed to defeat her in some way. To get her to find way of thinking much better, but not let her think that he was up to more sinister plot. The only reason he was doing this was because they promised to leave his mother alone, he was trying to protect her in her own way and he didn't even tell her either. Now, here he was getting them both detention so that he could get in with her. They stood at the door as she was being well herself complaining about him.

He stood there with his arms crossed as he looked over to her. "Blaming me for your own actions, your the one that got in the way. Now look at us, stuck in detention like I want to spend my time with you." Draco said a little disgusted by the fact, as he waited for the instructor of course this was planned as well. His blonde locks were always the same, combed back as his tall stature were always appealing to most woman. He looked better then before, as he was a mess during the dark lord reign, but he had a much calmer look on him. He was a quiditich player and captain still with his skill and speed only second to potter, which pissed him off still.

The person on wonder would appear a house-elf that would push a tray of food and drinks on it, along with some of the books that they would be using to do some head duty with. It might be a dream come true for Hermione to be able to sort through books and find every little detail about it. He on the other hand would just sigh as this would be there duty for the night, of course deep down he was grinning. The house elf would snap his fingers as the door would open and the cart would go inside with some help of magic. "McGonagall has said to sort these books in the proper order by volume and to ensure there are no damage to the books. If there is, you will need to write it down onto a new sheet and replace it to keep it in condition." He would say as he started to head out, it would seem that they will be alone for this portion of the detention with each other.

"Well great, now we have to look through this pile of books. Of course a bookworm like yourself will be happy with this sort of chore, I bet." Draco would taunt her thrist for knowledge as he would look towards the drinks, he did spike it after all with the help of the house elf. Despite her attempts to help them, some were still following the old rules of a master and not taking payment. It would only be a matter of time before she would take a sip and eat some of the freshly groomed finger sandwiches. He didn't say another word as he would enter the room to start looking through the books, as he wanted to pass the time.

 

[darkest_fate]

"At least that's something we can agree upon," Hermione said, once more giving Draco the stink-eye. Did she think that she was to blame for this? Well, perhaps partially. As Draco said, she had reacted poorly to his actions. Nonetheless, she knew who was truly at blame here, and it was the "handsome" Quidditch player (currently one of the best in the school from what Hermione knew, second to perhaps Ginny Weasley).

The appearance of the house elf startled Hermione. She felt almost ashamed for not having a SPEW button on hand: that organization had mostly slipped her mind these past few years, what with the war and everything. Plus she'd been busy helping students reintegrate and being a voice of reason and tolerance and everything. Still, Hermione made a mental note to begin campaigning properly for SPEW again soon.

As Draco had predicted, the punishment actually sounded somewhat pleasant to Hermione. She nodded. "That seems fair," she said as the house elf laid the instructions. She was tempted to try and offer the elf a piece of clothing or perhaps ask its name, but the elf was already vanishing and Draco was already making a nuisance of himself.

"It'll go easier if we divide up the work," Hermione said, pausing to pull back her unruly hair into a tighter ponytail. "I don't particularly like you; you don't like me, but if we work together, we can get through this task easily enough. We are the two smartest students at this school," Hermione paused, again eying Draco, a little challenge sneaking into her expression brown eyes. After all, she didn't believe Draco had properly earned his position. Then again, perhaps it was all those years of listening to Harry's opinion of Malfoy.

Hermione got to work immediately, looking through the books, dividing them up into piles. She was clearly getting quite wrapped up in the books, more or less ignoring the drinks and snacks in favor of completing the task on hand. After all, Hermione Granger was nothing if not the wholly focused student.

 

[Grimmdark]

Draco would chuckle towards her as they could only agree that being together was a bad choice. It wasn't his brightest idea, but just seeing her give him the stink eye was the usual thing with her. He was the to blame, but at least she wasn't trying to get out of this. The headmistress, how she would have to deal with her at some point and try to get on her good side to get into less trouble.

The fair choice in the matter was reading through the books, his eyes would notice her looking towards the house elf. She was apart of SPEW, which really irked him as he still had some house elves at his home. They took care of his mother while he was away, but now wasn't a time to even think about it like that. When she mentioned the word split, he would just sigh towards her as if he didn't want to do it.

"That's what I'm already doing with my pile. I don't your brain to come up with my own ideas." He taunted her as he looked through another book going through the pages. He wanted to use magic to do it, but that was banned during detention to not start a fight. "Who ever said I don't like you? There you go assuming things again. Well at least you called me the smartest student, so I can forgive you." Draco would say in a playful matter, but it was just a ploy to get on her nerves.

His eyes would veer over to her, but she wasn't even paying attention to food and drinks. It made him try to think of a way to get her to drink it, he couldn't use a spell here. So the only way was to district her from her book reading as his hand would slip a little. Tossing a book to the ground, the sound would echo throughout the room because they were the only one's here at the moment. He would just look at it for a moment, then back to his book not even picking it up trying to start a fight and maybe get her thirsty with a little bit of a yelling match.

 

[darkest_fate]

Hermione's eyes narrowed as Draco started sniping at her yet again. She could still quite vividly recall her time in his home, and the scars both physical and mental she bore from it. Considering that and all their... encounters previously to now. "Yes, it's well known that you are quite the Mudblood lover," she all but drawled. Yes, she could use that word: it was her word to use, and, as always, she believed in using the power of words for her benefit.

As for smartest... Hermione didn't feel like arguing that. Yes, she felt some twinge of pride over the whole "smartest witch of the age" business, but, well, it wasn't the main reason she did what she did. Studying just came naturally to her, as did figuring out problems, much like the one she was working on now.

But detentions like these were always somewhat dreadful. The company would've nearly been punishment enough, but Hermione had never been a fan of tasks without much of a time limit. She fully intended to do the job and do it thoroughly, however. And orderly would be the best way to do it.

Which was why she sighed as Draco dropped a book. "Careful!" she insisted, watching him pick it up. "These are probably rare or valuable. Even if they're not, they're books, and you shouldn't just be throwing them about," Hermione huffed, then looked over at Draco's pile. "You also put some out of order, see?" she walked over, pointing at some titles. "This one should be first, then," she started reorganizing, though, really, it was a mistake that required fairly esoteric knowledge, something that Malfoy couldn't reasonably be expected to have.

 

[Grimmdark]

He was doing his best to keep in line with her, she was just the worst person that he could ever talk to her. She went through hell and back to death the dark lord and even at his house as he watched her beg for her life at one point. The torture from his aunt was just nonsense as he wanted her to stop, but feared that he would be nice. He blinked at the mention of the word, she was using it for herself.

Draco tried to talk to her, but he couldn't find the words, she was well right in a sense. He just didn't expect her to use those words! It was just pissing him off as he wanted nothing to do with her. Reminding himself that he was doing this for his mother and the safety of his family with a calm expression on his face. He wasn't going to talk back to her comment trying to keep his composure.

Another book would fall to the floor as she tried to tell him off, what was he going to do with her? It came to mind that he wanted to yell at her, but this seemed more fun with her love for books. "There just books, what do you think they can say? Nothing!" Draco would taunt her again as she was just not going to shut up about his lack of knowledge. Then an idea came into his head as he would walk over to the food tray and grabbed the drink. "Maybe I should just pour this all over the books to get us both in trouble, all that knowledge washed away." Draco would say as this was better then tormenting first year students, as she might not have much choice to save her books from the drink in his hand.