p e t r i f i c u s t o t a l u s
{ black tree in the bee yard }

"So you stunned the kid, and left him there?" Draco drawled.

"Well..." She resisted the urge to bite on the end of her quill [he had told her, once, that the habit made her seem like a twitchy little mass of nerves, and while Hermione hardly ever took Draco's need to be sarcastic every two seconds personally, she knew he had been right, then]. "I actually... used Petrificus To -"

Draco coughed.

She stopped. "What?" She sounded fierce, even accusing. "What, Draco?"

"Nothing," he shrugged, but she continued to look at him in that accusing manner, like it was his fault that she had broken a mass of rules, and he finally decided to offer a brief explanation. "It's just a little..." Unlike you? Shocking? "Surprising."

"That I cast on the Fat Lady and a Gryffindor? To let you in?"

"Of course."

"But..." He knew having broken the rules would be like a stitch in her side, despite the knowledge that she had done the right thing. "It's for everyone's safety. The future."

"Doesn't change the fact that you've been a terrible Head Girl."

She glared at him. "Malfoy!"

He smirked. "That's my name."


Song credit: The Sea and the Cake. <3