Dramione - Battle of the Pranks

Chapter 1 - Don't Look Now

So I decided to rewrite this story as it wasn't how I would imagine it. I'm trying to create a plan but failing miserably. But I hope you enjoy it anyways and leave feedback as you have done on my other dramione story. I'd like to add that the characters may have differences from other fanfictions and from the actual Harry Potter series but that's because it's my story and I have made changes. If there are noticeable differences or if you disagree with some of the characterisation then just know that it's my writing so it's not going to be the same.

Enough of the ranting, I better get writing...

CHAPTER 1 -

It was their last train ride to Hogwarts but it felt like every other. Hermione sat by the window, her nose in a book which she had read at least two hundred times that summer. Harry and Ron were eating, laughing louder than needed in hope that if they kept on smiling it would eventually feel real. She tried to block them out, their empty laughs were filled with nothing but sorrow; lacking the usual humour she had adored. Their attempts of fixing themselves after the war were feeble, despair crushing them; dragging them under so they were slowly drowning.

Ginny and Neville joined them, shooting everyone small smiles as they began chattering pointlessly about anything they could. Hermione barely noticed they had arrived, lost in the fantasy world of fiction which seemed much more preferable to her usual life. She suddenly felt the urge to look up, a tugging in her mind which was difficult to ignore.

If she could go back in time to this moment, she wouldn't have torn her eyes from the page.

As soon as she glanced up, her eyes were captured with a pair of stormy grey ones. They were hard and cold like ice, sending a chill crawling up her spine. She couldn't look away, those eyes so captivating she didn't register who they belonged to; only fixating on the thunderstorm brewing deep inside them.

The door slid open with unnecessary force, the loud crash snapping her out of her daze and allowing her to see the owner of those eyes for what felt like the first time.

"Ah, wonderful. The whole gang is here!" Draco Malfoy chimed in a voice so cold and sarcastic it matched his eyes.

Hermione's stomach dropped, feeling mortified and disgusted at her own thoughts and bizarre attachment to those dark, sharp eyes which felt like they had cut deep into her soul. She was bleeding out; the wound deeper than it appeared.

"Piss off Malfoy." Ron growled, standing up in perfect sync with Harry and fixing the Slytherin with a glare of complete distaste and loathing.

"What are you even doing here? You're a confirmed death eater, there's a cell in Azkaban with your name written all over it." Harry sneered, cutting off Malfoy before the blond could even begin his comeback.

"That's not any of your business, Potter." He sneered, his hand instinctively going to the dark mark engraved onto his forearm. The mark was crawling uncomfortably on his arm, forever staining his pale skin.

"I think I ought to know if you're putting everyone at this school at risk again." Harry snapped with his hand clutching his wand tightly as he stepped closer to the pureblood.

"Harry, he isn't worth the hassle." Hermione called, her tone bored. She was getting tired of Malfoy already, his very presence bringing forward a basic argument which would go on for eternity if nobody bothered to split it up.

"Ah the mud blood speaks! I thought you had lost your vocal chords in the war Granger! But that would be a miracle." Malfoy drawled, leaning against the doorframe; his whole body leaking with arrogance.

"I could still hex your smug little ass off without my vocal chords. Unlike you, I mastered the art of wordless spells." She smirked, tilting her head to the side and raising her eyebrows challengingly.