To Play with Fire

Disclaimer: I own only plot and the pleasure of writing. All hail J.K.Rowling!


Chapter 3

To Take Responsibility


She hadn't taken it well. She had caused a scene in the common room and now everybody knew, which made it even worse than before. Merlin, how stupid she had been! Pansy knew she had to do something to stop these pitying looks she was receiving.

How could you! You were supposed to marry me! I was supposed to be the lady of the Manor! It was promised to me!

Draco had been staring at her as if she were mad, as if it was all her fault! How could he! How could he...? She didn't understand. She couldn't. She had known that she would be marrying Draco Malfoy since she was seven. She had dreams about it, she had plans, damn it! Pansy was sitting on her bed hugging a pillow to her chest. It was so humiliating. Well she had thought that it was humiliating to be dumped like that through a letter of her own father. She had thought she felt hurt and humiliated up until Draco Malfoy, the Prince of her universe, had started to laugh. Out loud! In front of everyone! He had stood there and laughed as she was crying and... and it was awful. It was the single most terrible thing that had ever happened to her.

She had ran to her room and cried some more. Then she had finally gotten angry at herself, since she had realised, that no one would ever have known about her humiliation, if she had not told everyone herself. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Yes, she had been stupid. But not anymore. And she had to get her revenge if only to stop everybody whispering behind her back. She had to get back at him and it had to be public and humiliating. And everybody would know that she was the one behind his misfortune. She did not know yet what she would do, but take action she would, or she wouldn't be a Parkinson.

* * *

It was almost lunch already and he still couldn't detect anything that suggested they knew. Only the incident with Pansy was discussed and that didn't bother him, if anything, quite a few of the girls girls had started flirting with him.

He had had a hell of a night fretting over the next day when everybody would throw him mocking looks or even laugh openly. But nothing had happened at the breakfast table or later. Everything seemed to be normal. He had been nice to a mudblood for an hour and she hadn't used it against him. How was it possible?

After lunch he had Arithmancy. It was an interesting subject, Draco loved numbers. Numbers were easy to deal with - they always had the same value, they acted as you expected them to, you could use them, control them, and every number would be the same tomorrow as it had been yesterday. Unlike people.

Granger had smiled at him when he entered the class.

Bloody hell! She had smiled at him! A small, barely there, shy and uncertain smile. Cor... She sat across the aisle from him now, taking notes, the tip of her tongue peeking out of the corner of her mouth. He blinked mesmerised. And blinked again. Something began stirring inside him and his brain was finally alerted of unfavourable reactions of his body. Shit.
Draco turned towards the teacher and resumed his notes.

The momentary surge of lust had shocked him so much that he had to make a concious effort to concentrate on the lecture and exercises given. Who could blame him? It had been a week since a decent snog and two since his last shag and he was a sixteen year old boy, after all. He planned to think about the whole thing in a less stressful setting later, so he was fully unprepared for what happened at the end of the class.

“I was thinking about that project we are supposed to do in pairs. Maybe we could do it together?” She was smiling at him like it was an every day occurrence that Granger and Malfoy actually talked, instead of yelling and insulting each other.

“Malfoy?”

He was unprepared for this and seriously did not know what to do. He was still looking at her without answering, his face unreadable and it was making her even more nervous. Draco put his parchment into the bag just to do something. Hermione Granger was no number alright. Draco tried to think fast. Whole bunch of 'whys' and 'hows' were pushed aside and only the question of “Do I want it?” needed an answer. The feeling of walking to a trap was nagging at him but he squashed it.

“Fine.” He composed himself, this was his chance. “Today at six in the library?”


* * *


Hermione was walking to the library at a leisurely pace. She didn't want to come too early. The plan had worked miraculously. It was actually Ron's idea. Most people didn't give Ronald Weasley enough credit, they thought he was a goofy and brainless sidekick of a hero who barely kept up with his studies, but the truth was that he was just a bit lazy. He was good at chess, so how stupid could he be? In fact, he was the one of the three who was able to think outside the box and offer novel ideas to solve a problem.

Hermione's forte was systematic and analytical approach, while Harry was an intuitive thinker who worked best in a stressful situation, but was quite useless dealing with a task that needed time and patience. So Ron had been the one who suggested, that if Malfoy wanted to get closer to Hermione to spy on them, then they could try to use him for the same purpose. Both guys disregarded the thought of Draco Malfoy actually wanting to get on with someone like her. She had agreed of course, but a part of her had been disappointed. Something in her wanted to believe that Malfoy actually might have changed and grown a conscience.


* * *


Draco was pacing again. This time it was in the library, the sun was shining and the school-folk was outside. Anyone with half a brain at least. He was, on the other hand, the one pathetic individual who seemed to think that studying was the way to get by at school nowadays. What a fool! ”Down, boy,” he told his sarcastic nature. It wasn't helping. Who the hell started with a school project on time?! Apparently Hermione Granger did and anyone who was idiot enough to pair with her was forced to tag along. He'd conveniently forgotten that it had been him that had invited her to the library that day.

But working in the library in a fine Quidditch weather was not the real problem and he knew it. No, the reason for pacing was Granger herself, The Task, that Granger girl, his reputation and finally – yes, you guessed it – Granger!

Draco Malfoy wasn't a fool, he realised that she wouldn't just want to work on a project with him because he was smart or handsome. The obvious solution was, that she had seen through his intentions of spying on them for The Dark Lord and had planned a full on counter-attack. The second option was that she had simply fallen for him which was a highly doubtful, but on the other hand, she had fallen for Blaise too, hadn't she? And that was unexpected and irrational too, right? Nah, she'd never... Though if she had... - his heart beat a bit faster at that thought - it would make everything so much easier! But life was never easy for Draco Malfoy, so he dismissed the thought after a minute.

He took his books out of the bag and went down the aisle to fetch more. He didn't find what he needed at first and walked to and fro. Finally he found it a shelf lower. Why did these things always happen to him? If it be somebody else, the book would surely be where it was supposed to be!

Faith had a way of screwing him. It was once more proved by the fact that he had now discovered that Granger was actually quite a girlie girl. Not that he found her beautiful or anything. No. He did not think her attractive in the least! Well, maybe somewhat nice in a way. In a serious and boring Gryffindor way. Yes, that's it! He nodded to himself. She was nice but not strikingly beautiful, lovely but stuffy, as that good-girl sort usually tended to be. BUT! She was not attractive and She. Was. Not. Sexy!

Merlin! He groaned. Was it really all it took for her to charm him? An hour in the library studying runes?! He was pathetic!

Banging his head against the shelf seemed to be in order so he indulged himself. Then a groan and repeat, groan and repeat, groan...

“What the hell are you doing?!”

Figures that she would choose to enter exactly at the worst moment! Draco closed his eyes.


* * *


It had been two weeks since the tentative truce had begun. Draco and Hermione met twice a week for their project and other two Trio members seemed to be laying off of Malfoy and he never started anything of his own volition. The rumours were in abundance, Hermione and Draco were paired off, the bets were made upon the duration of the truce. A big fight of epic proportions was being foretold and the particulars of it were discussed and bet upon again and again.

Draco, on the other hand, was in his own personal hell. He couldn't get her out of his head when he lay his head on the pillow in the evenings and his sheets were wet due to his morning dreams. How the hell had it happened to him? Draco didn't know. He thought of her during the classes and spied on her during meals from behind the books or The Prophet, very similarly to the way Hermione watched for her Italian hero. And oh boy, did she watch him!

It could be worse though, because currently Zabini was totally oblivious to her feelings. Still, Draco was desperately and constantly trying to squash the feeling of jealousy. He had to ensure that Hermione never got on. Not even in his wildest dreams would he guess that the girl that actually noticed and took his suffering exactly for what it was, was one Pansy Parkinson. She recognized all the signs before Draco had even acknowledged The Problem properly. This time, though, Pansy was over the moon and cooked up a plan.

She told it to Blaise and he didn't like it. He didn't like it at all. He liked it even less, than all the other plans Pansy had suggested. Some of them were rather crude and one or two were even bordering on criminal. But he was in love, so what could he really do? His Princess wanted revenge and what she wanted, she would have to get. The plan was set in motion about 35 hours before the first Hogsmead day.


* * *


“Hermione?” Blaise had finally cornered her after Potions. She had always made sure to avoid him - God knew why - but today he got lucky, because everybody else were already out of the classroom and Snape had stepped into the supplies closet to put something away.

Needless to say, Hermione's breath was caught and her hands started to shake.

“Yes...?” She couldn't say his name out loud. The only time she did it was behind the solitude of her bedroom in a devotion of a girl who's in love with a hero conjured by her own vivid imagination.

“Do you have plans for the Hogsmead day yet? I was thinking of going together, if you'd like.” For Blaise Zabini it was a piece of cake to ask a girl out. He did it often and was almost never rejected.

“OK.” Hermione was staring at him in shock but fortunately her shock was never ridiculously obvious, it looked more like a still thoughtfulness unless she stayed in her stupor for too long. This time she reacted within normal time frame and Blaise even thought her lovely in her mildness. He couldn't even begin to understand what this invite had meant for Hermione.

They agreed upon the meeting time and parted their ways.


* * *


Draco never heard of the date until afterwards because he had an important meeting that day. In fact, by the time he heard about it Hermione was already Blaise's girl. But this time ignorance was a blessing. The gathering he attended, acquired all his courage, intelligence and strength of character he possessed. That night was the crucial point where the course of his life changed forever.

The meeting had over twenty participants and all of them were high-rank Death Eaters. Draco was there to be shown off to the pride of Lucius Malfoy and envy of many others. He was the only yet to be Death Eater who already had an important mission. He had to report of his progress and give details of the plan.

Fortunately Draco Malfoy knew how to make everything sound better than it was even though he was really scared at the time. He was scared that The Dark Lord would not be pleased with his report, that he would not see reason nor understand his difficulties, that he would see right through his unwillingness to execute his plan in the first place. But what he most feared was, that he would be killed and his parents tortured. Or the other way around.

But the almighty Lord Voldemort was not more omniscient than he was omnipresent or transcendent. Everything was as the last time Draco had been brought before Voldemort. The same dark corridors and shadowed hallways were passed once more, the same dingy smell of dust and decay inhaled, reports given and tentative discussions held in the looming presence of The Dark Lord and his vile pet Nagini.

Draco found that in a way The Master was limited in his understanding, imagination and even intelligence. He was too self-centred and obnoxious to even grasp the difference between loyalty that originates from adoration and the one that comes from fear. Or maybe he simply didn't care? This was not a lord Draco was willing to die for and his mind was suddenly made up.

It wasn't so much that he disagreed with the pureblood ideology. Well, he did disagree with it but he also understood it on some level. Draco could have accepted it too, if he would be fighting only for a pureblood superiority, a society where his class was given what was their due – he could have accepted that. But he was not sure, that annihilation of all inferiors was as necessary as he had been taught. Still, the loyalty to his family had always come first for him; he could have been as dutiful as a soldier, as he was a son.

The fact he could not be at peace with, was that their leader had a deep-routed and all-encompassing, mindless need for power. Even more disturbing was, that the power The Dark Lord craved was not to control or govern. It was to destroy. Draco did not think even the likes of his father or Lestranges – the most zealous followers - would come out of the war unscratched, whether they lost or won. Because even if their side prevailed, everything and everyone was just the means for the Dark Lord, they all were expendable and the winning was all.

Draco could not understand how none of the adults present on that meeting didn't see, that the world their Master stood and fought for had no future. To destroy everything on their wake was pointless and foolish. You could not build a stable society on the irrecoverable ruins. He supposed the followers were all too far gone to see that, too deep in. Even the smartest ones, even his own father. Draco returned to the dorm exhausted but with a resolution to become his own man. Following a madman was not an option.

So while the most of the school body was having a day of fun outside the castle grounds, while Harry and Ron were goofing around at Honeydukes, Pansy shopping and Blaise Zabini kissing one blissful Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy was brought before Lord Voldemort as his follower for the second and the last time in his life. For him, this decision was a matter of responsibility.


TBC