Rewritten || Scorpius x Hermione Time Travel AU

7 | Caught

His eyes widened a little at the idea of sharing a table with the Golden Girl. His heart quaked with excitement and he tried his very best to keep himself from stupidly grinning.

"Unless, of course, you're afraid I'll infect you with my mudblood germs."

He winced at the insult and frowned. He was about to tell her off that she shouldn't call herself that, that she was far purer than any Pureblood he had ever met, but he remembered he was the infamous Scorpion King this time. Using 'mudbloods' and other insults should come as second nature to him.

Hermione gave him a strange look and Scorpius immediately busied himself with the book on his table. He waited until she was sifting through her textbook before taking a quick peek.

It still unnerved him how she and Rose looked uncannily alike. If he imagined really hard, he could already picture Hermione's hair as red and her lovely, brown eyes as blue. His heart sped up a little at his scarily accurate imagination, wondering if it was really too good to be true for Rose Weasley to do her homework on the same table as him.

"What are you reading about, Malfoy?"

The red hair and blue eyes immediately disappeared as Hermione Granger stared right back at him. Scorpius was quite disappointed his fantasy was disrupted, but the Gryffindor already quirked an eyebrow, awaiting an answer. He then lamely gestured at the book in front of him and offhandedly replied, "Research."

She frowned and took a quick peek at the book he was pertaining to. "'103 Ways to Travel by Magic'," she muttered aloud. Scorpius was relieved he had grabbed onto a perfectly benign book rather than a Dark Arts one. "We're basically taking almost all classes together and I don't recall about homework on magic travelling.

"I didn't say it's for schoolwork, Granger," he explained. "This is more for an... err... extra-curricular."

"Extra-curricular?" she echoed, highly amused. "Since when does the mighty 'Scorpion King' do some extra reading?"

"You're not the only swotty, know-it-all in this school," he drawled in reply.

To his surprise, Hermione was fighting off a smile. "Of course," she said. "That was terribly presumptuous of me."

He lightly glared and gestured at the book she was reading. "What are you reading about, then?" he asked.

She lifted the book so that he could see the front cover. "It's the Ancient Runes textbook. I think this is the only class we don't attend together." She made a face and placed the book back on the table. "I still don't understand why you chose Divination over Ancient Runes, Malfoy. You're clearly more intelligent for that... that hogwash."

"Did you just compliment me?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow in amusement. He grinned when Hermione flushed. "You think I'm intelligent, Granger?"

"We might hate each other very much, Malfoy, but I'm not blind," she snapped back, trying to cover her embarrassment with annoyance.

Feeling wonderfully validated, he leaned back on his chair, his grin still in place. "I have too many things to do than attend Ancient Runes," he explained. "Divination, on the other hand, I can pass it with my eyes closed. And I mean it literally because Professor Trelawney always yammered about finding the Inner Eye better with the eyes closed. I've been following her suggestion ever since, to be honest, and she thinks I'm brilliant. And, I'm getting enough sleep, so that's an added bonus."

To his utmost disbelief, Hermione leaned back her head and released a laugh. It was soft and lovely, and her eyes crinkled a bit.

Scorpius stared.