Percabeth Teach at Hogwarts

Chapter Ten

"Oh, I'm the prick?" Draco rounded on her and Percy pinched his lips together to keep from laughing at the look on his face. "Granger I would implore you to keep your nose out of this – "

"Or what?" She rose onto her feet, unfurling to her full height as she stepped toe to toe with Draco — the effect was quite hilarious. Hermione was a whole head shorter than him but her blazing eyes and straight back made her seem to tower over him. Draco, of course, didn't seem daunted in the slightest. "You'll do what Malfoy?"

Annabeth went to step forward to separate them but Percy put a hand on her wrist gently. Let them have it out, he tried to tell her with his eyes. Just let them do it themselves.

She grinned and nodded.

Percy had a feeling they'd best let them just fight it out and come back when they were done. So, quietly, Percy and Annabeth backed away and laughed quietly as they heard Hermione continue to disparage Draco as they went.

* * *

Draco

Draco was still standing toe to toe with Granger, trying not to laugh at the look on her face. She looked quite hilarious — she was practically steaming; he remembered suddenly in their third year when she had slapped him in their third year. A grin rugged at the edges of his lips.

"What are you grinning about?" Granger snapped at him, her brown eyes flaming as she flared her nostrils.

"Nothing of your concern Granger," he assured her, peering down at her as his grin widened. "Are we done here?"

"Done? I've barely gotten started you evil little rat! I told you I'm not going to deal with your idiocy anymore, and I meant it! What is it about me? Huh?" She breathed hard, swallowing visibly. Draco watched with little interest. "Why do you continue to terrorize me? I thought this was some - some mission – "

"Quest," he interjected.

"Whatever! Some quest — so did that quest include torturing me? Did the - the oracle or the gods — or whoever! — commission you to single me out and make my life difficult? Hm? Why me?"

He said nothing, suddenly embarrassed. Draco lifted a hand to his blonde hair, and raked a hand through it, stepping back from her as he did so. To tell the truth, no, he hasn't been told to target Hermione Granger specifically. The truth was that Hecate had told him to watch from the other side, to gain intel as a confidante and eventual Death Eater. The easiest way she said to do so would be to alienate himself, to work against Harry Potter as much as was possible.

And that included working against the Weasleys' and Granger.

But she never told him to be rude to Granger specifically. He wasn't proud of how he had treated her, and he, quite frankly, didn't know why he had been so cruel. Maybe it was the fact that she was everything he had wanted to be, everything he had wished he had been able to be at Hogwarts. As an eager eleven year old coming to the magic world ... he was so like her, and he hasn't gotten the chance to just be who he was.

He simply had to watch as she lived her life so passionately and so true to herself. And he had hated her for it.

And now ... old habits die hard, and it was just way too much fun to mess with her. But he wasn't going to tell her any of that.

For a moment, he remembered that excited, optimistic child he was when he came to Camp Half-Blood ...

Draco's father had sent him away. Again. This time all the way to America.

Draco had been doing well in his new school, making all A's, hoping it would impress him father enough to let him come home and see his mum. No such luck though.