Round 2 Challenge #2: Voting
Here we are in the second week of voting for Round 2 of dramione LDWS!!
A couple of things to remember when deciding which drabbles to vote for (most and least favorite):
Guidelines:
Which drabble best incorporates the prompt?
2. Is the drabble clever, different, fresh? Does it evoke an emotional response (good or bad)?
3. Does the drabble contain grammar, canon or spelling errors?
The “feedback” option.
As a voter, you have the option of leaving a brief statement about why you voted the way you did, for both most and least favorite. Your feedback will then be given to the drabble writer (if they want the feedback) ANONYMOUSLY.
Example: Most - #40: the ending was brilliant - OR - Least - #57: the ending fell flat
Quick note: We've sent out the feedback for last week, so if you didn't get an LJ message from us, then you had no feedback left for your drabble. Also, this week, we'll be doing it differently; we'll be leaving a comment attached to your drabble submission post.
Now that all of that is done… We present the drabbles for week 2!!
Choose your favorite and least favorite drabbles. Favorites will receive +1 point per vote, and least favorites -1 point per vote. The drabble with the most point wins the week, and in accordance with the rules, two, authors will be voted off this week.
Voting ends at 11:59pm, Friday, September 5, 2008, EST.
Four participants are using their skip this week:
marlaichen
miyabita13
desdiamonds
snowe
PROMPT: LIES, LIES, LIES!
1
Title: For the Cause
Author : greenschist
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Word Count: 250
What do you do, Draco wondered, when you do everything right but still fail to get the girl?
He watched Hermione accept her cloak from an elf and considered his situation. He was no closer to wooing Hermione than before, despite voluntarily opening his home to her for the Ministry's monthly dark magic inspection and opening his heart by answering her questions, no matter how difficult. Being good wasn't working.
It was time for the last resort of Malfoy seduction: lying.
“Tragic, isn't it?” Hermione turned, but Draco carefully focused on the elf. “They're so...oppressed.”
“I'm surprised you feel that way, Draco, since you're his oppressor.”
“I'm not,” he insisted, all wide, innocent eyes and a righteous expression. He dropped his hand on the elf's head and silently cursed it for flinching. “I'm committed to elf rights. After I inherit, freeing elves will be my first priority.”
“How enlightened.”
“Thanks.” Was it a bad sign that she seemed amused? “Heard of my group yet? 'Elvish Liberation, Integration, and Treatment as Equals'?”
“ELITE? ”
What's wrong with ELITE? Draco thought it was clever. “We could discuss the movement over dinner.”
Hermione laughed. “I'm not gullible, Draco. If you cared about elves, you'd let go of poor Pricket and stop scaring him.” He dropped his hand and frowned as the elf cringed further. “But,” she smiled, “you should care. Pick me up at eight and I'll teach you why.” With a crack, she disapparated.
Draco's triumphant “Yes!” almost frightened Pricket to death.
2
Title: The Gardenia Pin
Author : ilkee
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Word Count: 250
The only true thing in Draco’s life was this gardenia. This small, silver Muggle pin.
It was hers. And it was it was pure, and good, and beautiful. Just like her.
But not forbidden.
One month ago he watched it fall from her robe.
Two weeks ago he watched her meticulously scan the library, its long aisles, and under the tables.
Three days ago he watched her make a slow zigzag down a corridor.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
In classrooms. In the Great Hall. In the library.
Once, she raised her head and looked straight at him. Even then, he couldn’t look away.
Especially then.
He was a coward, afraid to reach too high.
But it was time.
Graduation was over. This night was his last chance.
Draco examined the shiny flower between his fingers. His only true thing. It was everything he wasn’t and everything he wanted.
He fastened the pin to his lapel and looked at himself in the mirror.
Jump Draco.
Draco stopped directly in front of her, his eyes locked on hers, his heart thumping hard against his ribs.
She was searching his eyes, and he hoped she could see it, what he wanted to say but couldn’t, but she dropped her gaze.
And then she gasped.
His heart lurched.
She saw it.
She knew.
And her eyes flew back up to his.
“Hermione,” Potter said over her shoulder, “isn’t that your...?”
“No,” she said as a gentle smile blossomed on her mouth.
3
Title: Fairest of Them All
Author : bookishwench
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Word Count: 250
“No,” Draco said.
Pansy’s mouth was drawn into a pout she probably thought was attractive but actually made her resemble a spoiled bulldog. Trying to distract her, Draco deftly twirled her across the dance floor. Maybe if she’d been less dizzy, she would have noticed he wasn’t looking at her or the pink atrocity she called a dress.
Hermione was absolutely glorious. He tried to muster some of the disdain he’d conditioned himself to think for four years, silently repeating the words tainted, ugly, and, most importantly, forbidden. But tonight he couldn’t lie to himself as easily as he could to Pansy.
Pansy had asked if he thought Hermione looked pretty. He’d tried for his best sneer and an insult, but all he could manage was that deceitful “No.”
Still, his girlfriend seemed satisfied, giggling in that insanely annoying way that made his gut crawl into his lungs. She tottered off with her friends for refreshments, and when Krum soon followed, Draco took his chance, slipping behind Hermione unnoticed.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispered in her ear. “I mean it.”
She turned and stared at him, and he knew she was waiting for the verbal equivalent of a slap. When it didn’t come, her face changed from surprise to uncertainty, then fury.
“Must you always make fun of me?” she said angrily.
“No, I…,” he began, but she was gone.
It was the only time he hadn’t lied to her, but it was also the only time she hadn’t believed him.
4
Title: Forgiveness
Author : acerola21
Rating: G
Warnings: None that I can think of
Word Count: 250 exact! HAH!!
She looked at him. How could you, her eyes said. How could you lie to me like that?
He refused to stare back at her, lost at what he should do. “Don’t look at me like that,” he replied back. “I did what I had to do. You don’t understand.”
And yet, he knew that he was wrong. He felt his lungs constrict, felt himself breathe but not as much as he usually did, felt that heaviness down somewhere around his heart. He didn’t feel the usual sense of detachment-the feeling that he didn’t really do anything bad, that the other person was really at fault for what he did. With her, he didn’t feel that way. For once in his life, he knew that he was guilty, that she deserved an apology.
She still looked at him with those eyes-those eyes that reminded him of an oak tree standing proudly on the ground. “Do you really feel that way, Draco?” she asked.
The question hung in the air. He felt like he was going to suffocate-what was he supposed to do? He felt awkward. He didn’t know how to apologize, to tell her that he’s really sorry-because he’s never done something like that before. He knew that he would come off insincere, as someone who apologized in word but not in heart. He just-he couldn’t-
And then, her hand softly covered his. He looked up, gazed upon her eyes, and-there it was.
Forgiveness.
5
Title: Two Truths and a Lie
Author : kate0404
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Word Count: 250 (Yeah baby! Not bad for 20 minutes worth of writing!)
“I sleep naked every night.” His face was a mask of indifference. “I jog six miles a day.” She rolled her eyes. “And I wear women’s knickers.”
Hermione burst into laughter before Draco could finish his last sentence. “Oh Merlin, this was supposed to be hard, Malfoy,” she said finally, though tears streamed down her eyes. “Of course you don’t wear women’s knickers.”
Draco looked annoyed. “What makes you think that?”
“I-I-I’m sorry?” She abruptly stuttered to a stop. Merlin, he was bloody serious.
“That is not the correct lie, Granger.”
“It has to be,” she argued. Hermione refused to believe Draco Malfoy wore women’s knickers. It just could not be.
“I believe you sleep naked every night.”
He smirked and she blushed.
Hermione rushed forward, “And your physique clearly states that you’re an avid jogger.”
He grinned and she felt her heart race.
Firmly: “But I refuse to believe you wear women’s knickers. It’s impossible.”
Draco leaned back in his chair, extremely smug with himself. “Ah, Granger, what little you know.” He glanced at his perfectly manicured nails and said, “I don’t jog six miles a day.”
“W-w-what?”
He looked at her stunned face. “Thank you for the ego-boost about my physique (she blushed again), but I don’t jog; it’s wretched.”
She was quiet for a moment. “Women’s knickers?” It couldn’t be.
“Ever since that Muggle movie John Tucker Must Die was released, I’ve worn them. That man was right; my best friend is sleeping in a silk hammock.”
6
Title: Little White Lies
Author : imogen_penn
Rating: PG-13 for some swearing and implied violence
Warnings: Character Death
Word Count: 250
He didn’t know how it had happened. All he knew was, when the battle had ended, she hadn’t returned with the rest. Against orders Draco had run back, desperately searching the fallen for her face.
She was alive when he found her. Her face was deathly pale. In the moonlight, she almost looked as if she was in black and white; something beautiful but somehow old fashioned, in the past.
Scarlet darkened her robes, turning to macabre mud on the ground, blood slowly seeping from the wound in her side.
She blinked up at him, “I knew you’d come,” she whispered, reaching a hand up to touch his face as he knelt over her. “I knew you’d come for me.”
“Always,” he said, kissing her forehead before pulling aside her robe to asses the damage. It must have been sectusempra… or a really big sword. “Buggering shite.”
“Don’t swear Draco,” Hermione scolded, her eyes unfocused, “It isn’t polite.”
“Fuck, Hermione,” he put a hand to her cheek, forcing her to look at him. “Hermione, I need you to focus, okay? Stay with me.”
“Draco?” She looked at him as if finally seeing him, “I got hurt.”
“Yeah,” Draco fought back tears, “Yeah I know.” He looked down at the spreading pool beneath her. He knew it was too late.
“Am… am I going to be okay?”
Draco forced a smile to his face, “Yes love, you’re going to be just fine.”
She smiled back at him and closed her eyes.
7
Title: A Sign
Author : dynonugget
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Word Count: 250
In the pouring rain, she stood watching him. There were a thousand things she wanted to say, but there was only silence now.
All she needed was a sign; a twitch in the corner of his mouth, a hint of his smile, anything other than the cold, vacant expression she saw now in his eyes.
If she saw it, Hermione would let the truth flood from her.
She had given him a chance when no one else had, had trusted him when those closest to her begged her not to. Hermione had even given him the one thing no one else could ever have again.
She did not regret it.
Because Hermione knew that love was a priceless gift, in spite of the risk she took to find it.
Hermione had risked it, believing he would never hurt her.
As distant thunder rolled, pain gripped her soul, and she wondered if she would survive it.
Look at me. Give me just one sign.
His body stiff, Draco stared coldly back at her. Grief radiating from her in waves crushed his very soul.
Understanding wholly what his father was capable of, knowing exactly who had attacked Hermione twice now, there was only one choice he could make.
Protect the only witch he had ever loved.
“I never loved you,” he said without emotion.
“Draco-“
“He'll kill you,” Draco whispered.
Tears poured from her as he gave her the only thing she needed, a sign he still loved her.
It was enough.
8
Title: Two Truths and One Lie
Author : ravenswing34
Rating: PG13
Warnings: none
Word Count: 250
Draco had spent most of the previous turns thinking of the perfect trifecta of statements. “Alright… I’ve been seeing Hermione secretly for a few weeks, I am the father of her love child and she has agreed to be my wife.” The silence and dumbfounded looks were highly amusing as he sat smirking.
“Draco, you are aware we are playing TWO truths and ONE lie?” Ron asked, breaking the silence.
Hermione interrupted, “He knows the game, Ron.” Smiling, she leaned over to give Draco a soft kiss. But Draco was not satisfied with just a peck. He captured her head, deepening the kiss, finishing with a soft pull and nip on her bottom lip.
“I think they are all lies,” Ron stubbornly muttered.
Everyone else seemed too flabbergasted to speak.
“Maybe if I go next, it would help,” Hermione paused and took a deep breath. “I was a bit forgetful, I’m pregnant and I’m getting married in a year.”
The sound of Ron falling out of his chair in a dead faint didn’t even cause a stir as everyone continued to stare at the pair.
Finally Luna serenely spoke, “Hmm, Draco’s lie was a few weeks. You have been going out longer.”
Draco nodded, “Over a year, in fact."
Turning to Hermione, Luna continued, “So, Draco and you forgot the charm in a moment of passion, ergo pregnancy, therefore you must be getting married in a month or so?”
Hermione sheepishly grinned and said, “Surprise?”
The silence was deafening.
9
Title: I Still Hate You
Author : delayed_poet
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Word Count: 250 exactly!
Hermione could always count on Draco Malfoy to be completely honest with her. Granted, his version of the truth was always skewed in some way, but it was still the truth as he saw it.
When they were assigned to work together in the Ministry's Experimental Charms Department, she found him to be more intellectual than she'd thought he was. And yet, at the end of every day, he would tell her, “I still hate you,” and she believed him.
When her and Ron finally broke up, Malfoy had simply said, “You're better off without him.” And that night when it was time to return home, he told her he still hated her. Hermione believed him.
Hermione couldn't figure out when things had changed, but it was a rainy day in November when she realized that they had. After having a stimulating intellectual debate on a particular charm the Ministry had them working on, Hermione and Malfoy were ready to go home.
Malfoy looked Hermione in the eye and said, “I still hate you.”
Her heart seemed to stop, for his voice had sounded different than usual. She knew, almost immediately, what the change was and could hardly dare to believe it. For the first time since she'd known him, Draco Malfoy had told her a lie.
Hermione pulled her lower lip between her teeth, then asked, “Would you like to go out for drinks?”
Malfoy looked at her for a minute before nodding. “Yes.”
10
Title: drunk on alcohol & love
Author : dysenchanted2
Rating: PG
Warnings: none!
Word Count: 250
The day he first tells her he loves her, Hermione cannot help but notice how eerily blue the sky is. It is too unnatural, blue skies in October, and so she slips and say she loves him, too. He is too pleased to notice all the unhappy endings she begins planning in her mind. She breaks up with him the next week.
--
She gets drunk and complains to Malfoy about whats-his-face before throwing up on his new Italian shoes. It is sad and pathetic that Malfoy has become her go-to-guy. Hermione can think of one hundred reasons why she should hate him for all of eternity yet that one reason not to is enough.
--
They have a talk about love a week later. She thinks it is hilariously ironic that Malfoy believes in happy endings. He says things which burn ideas of hope in her mind that she should not have. She stumbles out of the pub drunk on alcohol and emotion and overwhelmed with loneliness.
--
They kiss one night after one drink too many and she points out their disagreements on love. Do you love me? He whispers back into the darkness. She feels the steady beat of her pulse as she whispers back. No. But her fingers are already entangled in his hair again and her heart beats hard against her ribcage-liar, liar, liar. Hermione feels strangely sober as he smiles at her and the unhappy endings dissolve away. I don’t love you, too.
11
Title: A Lesson for a Liar.
Author : emm718
Rating: PG
Warnings: None.
Word Count: 250 EXACTLY.
Although it wasn't High Tea, Hermione Granger had an intense craving for clotted cream, preferably on a raspberry almond scone. But when she waddled into the kitchen, she disappointedly found the container completely devoured. There wasn't a clot left for her eager palate.
Being infamous for her extensive knowledge, she was rarely wrong and ergo, seldom disputed. So when she made an inquiry, it was for two reasons. One, she genuinely didn't know the answer and was keen to learn it. Or two, she already knew the answer and was giving the interrogated individual a chance to be forthright. It was always smarter and easier for everyone involved if the answer was given immediately and honestly. After all, her temper was legendary also.
So when she toddled into the study, rubbing her swollen stomach and asked her adoring husband of two years if he ate her clotted cream, she expected nothing short of the truth.
Unfortunately Draco Malfoy still thought rather highly of his cunning and charms. He did eat the rest of her clotted cream. With raspberry almond scones. He was confident that she wouldn't notice and thus answered indignantly, "Of course not!"
Regrettably for Draco Malfoy, his pregnant wife didn't need any Veritaserum, for the droplet of clotted cream on his upper lip told her all she needed to know and her hex was precise and humiliating.
But he was an apt learner and with his magically elongated nose, he vowed never to touch clotted cream ever again.
12
Title: Reunion
Author : the_woods_
Rating: G
Warnings: x
Word Count: 250 (I hand counted, 'cos of the dashes P:)
It started with a conversation; forced pleasantries in an attempt to keep up appearances. And then-
Laughter. “You haven’t changed a bit.”
She shrugged.
“Bet the first place you wandered off to was the library.”
She giggled. “Now why would you think-”
“Come on, tell the truth.”
“Honestly, Ronald, this isn’t truth-”
Immediately she froze. He looked above her head at a spot nowhere in particular. Sniffed stiffly.
Her hand, reaching, always reaching, never close enough-
“Draco, I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”
“Of course you weren’t.”
It felt sharp even on his tongue.
She muttered an excuse to leave, awkwardly heading for the castle. He stepped up to her briskly, grabbing her arm and turning her towards him.
“Look at me.” A moment, and then desperation made him yell. “Hermione!”
Tears. How often had he been witness to her sorrow?
How often had she been witness to his?
“You lied to me.”
“I did.”
“I waited for you,” he pushed.
“You did.” She bit her lip. “It was a mistake.”
Silence. “A mistake, huh.”
“Yes,” she answered exuberantly. “We can’t-”
“No, you can’t,” he interrupted, restless. “Shut your eyes.”
She did without pause.
He leaned in, his forehead touching hers. “Hermione,” he whispered, grazing her lips softly, “with eyes shut, who do you see?”
He kissed her. She cried. And then-
A gasp all too soon. “But Ronald,” she murmured. Shook her head. “No, I can’t, Draco.”
Sighing, he backed away.
“Forget it, Granger.”
He left without a forced goodbye.
13
Title: Manufactured Truths
Author : ebilgatoloco/ formally dorito2000
Rating: G
Warnings: Angst
Word Count: 250
As he walked through the door to his flat, his resolution wavered slightly; however, he summoned his courage and began the trek to the kitchen that would change the course of his life. It was eating him up inside. He couldn’t bear it any more, and he refused to continue living with the carefully constructed lies he created had of his life. It tugged at his consciousness, knowing he had lied for so long, and worse, gotten away with it. It was time to face the truth, to tell her what she deserved to know; finally free her from the manufactured truths that bound them together for too long.
Pushing the door open to their kitchen knowing he’d find her there, he gasped softly as the intricate web of lies fell apart before his eyes. He had lied for the past three years without even flinching half the time. He claimed to love her cooking when his opinion couldn’t be further from the truth. He cringed when he’d kissed her goodbye every morning before setting off to work. Told her he loved her when he couldn’t stand to be touched by her anymore. He’d broken so many promises he’d lost track of them over time.
However, as he watched his childhood sweetheart in the arms of another, his heart shattered with disbelief and pain. He searched his mind for the hints or clues but couldn’t find one. And Ron knew in that moment she’d been lying all along as well.
14
Title: The truth revealed
Author : ginny_love1
Rating:Mature
Warnings: Bad Language from the outset.
Word Count: 250 excatly
“You lied to me, you complete wanker.” Hermione ranted in the general direction of Malfoy “You told me they were ‘shagging like rabbit's’, they are doing no such thing.”
“Just let me explain, please.” Draco pleaded “I honestly never thought you would believe me.”
“Believe you, why wouldn’t I believe you, you showed me what I thought were several photos of Harry shagging Ginny Fucking Weasley.” Hermione practically screamed “Why would you do that for a joke?”
“Because I always fancied you and I thought that if I could get you away from potter then who knows.”
“You really are a piece of work, un-fucking-believable why would I want you after everything that has happened between us?” Hermione retorted venomously, looking directly at Draco he looked sort of hurt. She turned and walked towards the window of his office.
Hermione felt him walk up behind her not touching her but just there; she had only married Harry because her first choice would never have wanted anything to do with her or so she thought.
“I would never, have been allowed to be with you while my parents were around but now things are different. You know that.” Draco answered plainly.
She shifted her position and turned to look him straight in the eyes, to see if this time she could see any trace of lies when she gazed into the grey depths while she searched he moved closer Hermione didn’t seem to notice as he moved in and kissed her.
15
Title: Not My Place
Author : inadaze22
Rating: R-ish, but mainly PG-13
Warnings: mentions of cutting
Word Count: 250
They say Draco’s been repaired, but I know the truth. And, no, I won’t tell.
It’s not my place - just like it’s not my place to fix him.
He refuses to be fixed.
After each breakdown, he calls and I come. Why? Because I’m all he has. Draco has no family, pride, wealth - nothing. I look into his eyes. Nothing. I touch him. Nothing. The war took everything from him.
Draco’s self-destructive behavior is a conscious revenge tactic; it’s his revenge against a world that used him as a scapegoat. He doesn’t listen when I tell him that he doesn’t have to destroy himself for vengeance purposes. So, I listen to his confessions. Draco’s horribly honest. Filthy words and truths spill from a filthy mouth.
My fingers run over his wrists, over clotting blood and fading scars. I press my lips against his skin. His face contorts in pain. I can’t differentiate whether it’s from the burn of my saliva on his butchered flesh or the tenderness of my touch.
I should walk away….
“I hate you.” Draco hisses after I heal his cuts.
“It’s mutual.” I lie, flatly.
“You’re lying, Granger.”
“…”
“You can’t fix me.”
But, I want to, because I love him, dead eyes, scarred skin, brokenness, and all.
And I hate myself.
“Sleep, Draco.”
He listens, but the nightmares begin quickly. And I calm him by breathing a kiss against his lips.
Draco sighs, “Go.”
I listen because it’s not my place to do anything else.
16
Title: True Lies
Author : telperaca
Rating: None
Warnings: None
Word Count: 250
Draco saw the bulky dark figure huddled in the corner of the room. Her face seemed to be buried between her chest and her knees. He heard the irregular breathing sounds coming from the outlined figure which caused his own breathing to stop.
She had been crying.
He had never considered his own lies would ever hurt him as much as it did right now. Constantly convincing himself that he was not in love with this intelligent woman, nor mesmerised by her subtle beauty but seeing her at her most vulnerable moment caused his walls to crumble.
He found himself at an impasse, unable to walk away, and yet unable to say the right words to comfort her without frightening her away. There was only one thing to do.
He took the seven strides to reach her, removed his heavy cloak and draped it around her. He placed a hand on her knee as he sat opposite her. She only cried harder.
“He’s looking for you, you know?” A gentle squeeze of her hand on his. This small gesture from her would have been enough to set his heart on fire if only circumstances were different. If only she did not belong to another.
Unable to think further, he continued and said the first thing that came to his head. “He says he’s sorry, and he… loves you.” This was simple truth of his life but a lie for another man.
“It’s over.” And she looked straighter into his eyes.
ooo
REMEMBER: Vote for the NUMBER of the drabble, NOT THE NAME. It just makes it easier on the mods!
Poll
A couple of things to remember when deciding which drabbles to vote for (most and least favorite):
Guidelines:
The “feedback” option.
As a voter, you have the option of leaving a brief statement about why you voted the way you did, for both most and least favorite. Your feedback will then be given to the drabble writer (if they want the feedback) ANONYMOUSLY.
Example: Most - #40: the ending was brilliant - OR - Least - #57: the ending fell flat
Quick note: We've sent out the feedback for last week, so if you didn't get an LJ message from us, then you had no feedback left for your drabble. Also, this week, we'll be doing it differently; we'll be leaving a comment attached to your drabble submission post.
Now that all of that is done… We present the drabbles for week 2!!
Choose your favorite and least favorite drabbles. Favorites will receive +1 point per vote, and least favorites -1 point per vote. The drabble with the most point wins the week, and in accordance with the rules, two, authors will be voted off this week.
Voting ends at 11:59pm, Friday, September 5, 2008, EST.
Four participants are using their skip this week:
marlaichen
miyabita13
desdiamonds
snowe
PROMPT: LIES, LIES, LIES!
1
Title: For the Cause
Author : greenschist
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Word Count: 250
What do you do, Draco wondered, when you do everything right but still fail to get the girl?
He watched Hermione accept her cloak from an elf and considered his situation. He was no closer to wooing Hermione than before, despite voluntarily opening his home to her for the Ministry's monthly dark magic inspection and opening his heart by answering her questions, no matter how difficult. Being good wasn't working.
It was time for the last resort of Malfoy seduction: lying.
“Tragic, isn't it?” Hermione turned, but Draco carefully focused on the elf. “They're so...oppressed.”
“I'm surprised you feel that way, Draco, since you're his oppressor.”
“I'm not,” he insisted, all wide, innocent eyes and a righteous expression. He dropped his hand on the elf's head and silently cursed it for flinching. “I'm committed to elf rights. After I inherit, freeing elves will be my first priority.”
“How enlightened.”
“Thanks.” Was it a bad sign that she seemed amused? “Heard of my group yet? 'Elvish Liberation, Integration, and Treatment as Equals'?”
“ELITE? ”
What's wrong with ELITE? Draco thought it was clever. “We could discuss the movement over dinner.”
Hermione laughed. “I'm not gullible, Draco. If you cared about elves, you'd let go of poor Pricket and stop scaring him.” He dropped his hand and frowned as the elf cringed further. “But,” she smiled, “you should care. Pick me up at eight and I'll teach you why.” With a crack, she disapparated.
Draco's triumphant “Yes!” almost frightened Pricket to death.
2
Title: The Gardenia Pin
Author : ilkee
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Word Count: 250
The only true thing in Draco’s life was this gardenia. This small, silver Muggle pin.
It was hers. And it was it was pure, and good, and beautiful. Just like her.
But not forbidden.
One month ago he watched it fall from her robe.
Two weeks ago he watched her meticulously scan the library, its long aisles, and under the tables.
Three days ago he watched her make a slow zigzag down a corridor.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
In classrooms. In the Great Hall. In the library.
Once, she raised her head and looked straight at him. Even then, he couldn’t look away.
Especially then.
He was a coward, afraid to reach too high.
But it was time.
Graduation was over. This night was his last chance.
Draco examined the shiny flower between his fingers. His only true thing. It was everything he wasn’t and everything he wanted.
He fastened the pin to his lapel and looked at himself in the mirror.
Jump Draco.
Draco stopped directly in front of her, his eyes locked on hers, his heart thumping hard against his ribs.
She was searching his eyes, and he hoped she could see it, what he wanted to say but couldn’t, but she dropped her gaze.
And then she gasped.
His heart lurched.
She saw it.
She knew.
And her eyes flew back up to his.
“Hermione,” Potter said over her shoulder, “isn’t that your...?”
“No,” she said as a gentle smile blossomed on her mouth.
3
Title: Fairest of Them All
Author : bookishwench
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Word Count: 250
“No,” Draco said.
Pansy’s mouth was drawn into a pout she probably thought was attractive but actually made her resemble a spoiled bulldog. Trying to distract her, Draco deftly twirled her across the dance floor. Maybe if she’d been less dizzy, she would have noticed he wasn’t looking at her or the pink atrocity she called a dress.
Hermione was absolutely glorious. He tried to muster some of the disdain he’d conditioned himself to think for four years, silently repeating the words tainted, ugly, and, most importantly, forbidden. But tonight he couldn’t lie to himself as easily as he could to Pansy.
Pansy had asked if he thought Hermione looked pretty. He’d tried for his best sneer and an insult, but all he could manage was that deceitful “No.”
Still, his girlfriend seemed satisfied, giggling in that insanely annoying way that made his gut crawl into his lungs. She tottered off with her friends for refreshments, and when Krum soon followed, Draco took his chance, slipping behind Hermione unnoticed.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispered in her ear. “I mean it.”
She turned and stared at him, and he knew she was waiting for the verbal equivalent of a slap. When it didn’t come, her face changed from surprise to uncertainty, then fury.
“Must you always make fun of me?” she said angrily.
“No, I…,” he began, but she was gone.
It was the only time he hadn’t lied to her, but it was also the only time she hadn’t believed him.
4
Title: Forgiveness
Author : acerola21
Rating: G
Warnings: None that I can think of
Word Count: 250 exact! HAH!!
She looked at him. How could you, her eyes said. How could you lie to me like that?
He refused to stare back at her, lost at what he should do. “Don’t look at me like that,” he replied back. “I did what I had to do. You don’t understand.”
And yet, he knew that he was wrong. He felt his lungs constrict, felt himself breathe but not as much as he usually did, felt that heaviness down somewhere around his heart. He didn’t feel the usual sense of detachment-the feeling that he didn’t really do anything bad, that the other person was really at fault for what he did. With her, he didn’t feel that way. For once in his life, he knew that he was guilty, that she deserved an apology.
She still looked at him with those eyes-those eyes that reminded him of an oak tree standing proudly on the ground. “Do you really feel that way, Draco?” she asked.
The question hung in the air. He felt like he was going to suffocate-what was he supposed to do? He felt awkward. He didn’t know how to apologize, to tell her that he’s really sorry-because he’s never done something like that before. He knew that he would come off insincere, as someone who apologized in word but not in heart. He just-he couldn’t-
And then, her hand softly covered his. He looked up, gazed upon her eyes, and-there it was.
Forgiveness.
5
Title: Two Truths and a Lie
Author : kate0404
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Word Count: 250 (Yeah baby! Not bad for 20 minutes worth of writing!)
“I sleep naked every night.” His face was a mask of indifference. “I jog six miles a day.” She rolled her eyes. “And I wear women’s knickers.”
Hermione burst into laughter before Draco could finish his last sentence. “Oh Merlin, this was supposed to be hard, Malfoy,” she said finally, though tears streamed down her eyes. “Of course you don’t wear women’s knickers.”
Draco looked annoyed. “What makes you think that?”
“I-I-I’m sorry?” She abruptly stuttered to a stop. Merlin, he was bloody serious.
“That is not the correct lie, Granger.”
“It has to be,” she argued. Hermione refused to believe Draco Malfoy wore women’s knickers. It just could not be.
“I believe you sleep naked every night.”
He smirked and she blushed.
Hermione rushed forward, “And your physique clearly states that you’re an avid jogger.”
He grinned and she felt her heart race.
Firmly: “But I refuse to believe you wear women’s knickers. It’s impossible.”
Draco leaned back in his chair, extremely smug with himself. “Ah, Granger, what little you know.” He glanced at his perfectly manicured nails and said, “I don’t jog six miles a day.”
“W-w-what?”
He looked at her stunned face. “Thank you for the ego-boost about my physique (she blushed again), but I don’t jog; it’s wretched.”
She was quiet for a moment. “Women’s knickers?” It couldn’t be.
“Ever since that Muggle movie John Tucker Must Die was released, I’ve worn them. That man was right; my best friend is sleeping in a silk hammock.”
6
Title: Little White Lies
Author : imogen_penn
Rating: PG-13 for some swearing and implied violence
Warnings: Character Death
Word Count: 250
He didn’t know how it had happened. All he knew was, when the battle had ended, she hadn’t returned with the rest. Against orders Draco had run back, desperately searching the fallen for her face.
She was alive when he found her. Her face was deathly pale. In the moonlight, she almost looked as if she was in black and white; something beautiful but somehow old fashioned, in the past.
Scarlet darkened her robes, turning to macabre mud on the ground, blood slowly seeping from the wound in her side.
She blinked up at him, “I knew you’d come,” she whispered, reaching a hand up to touch his face as he knelt over her. “I knew you’d come for me.”
“Always,” he said, kissing her forehead before pulling aside her robe to asses the damage. It must have been sectusempra… or a really big sword. “Buggering shite.”
“Don’t swear Draco,” Hermione scolded, her eyes unfocused, “It isn’t polite.”
“Fuck, Hermione,” he put a hand to her cheek, forcing her to look at him. “Hermione, I need you to focus, okay? Stay with me.”
“Draco?” She looked at him as if finally seeing him, “I got hurt.”
“Yeah,” Draco fought back tears, “Yeah I know.” He looked down at the spreading pool beneath her. He knew it was too late.
“Am… am I going to be okay?”
Draco forced a smile to his face, “Yes love, you’re going to be just fine.”
She smiled back at him and closed her eyes.
7
Title: A Sign
Author : dynonugget
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Word Count: 250
In the pouring rain, she stood watching him. There were a thousand things she wanted to say, but there was only silence now.
All she needed was a sign; a twitch in the corner of his mouth, a hint of his smile, anything other than the cold, vacant expression she saw now in his eyes.
If she saw it, Hermione would let the truth flood from her.
She had given him a chance when no one else had, had trusted him when those closest to her begged her not to. Hermione had even given him the one thing no one else could ever have again.
She did not regret it.
Because Hermione knew that love was a priceless gift, in spite of the risk she took to find it.
Hermione had risked it, believing he would never hurt her.
As distant thunder rolled, pain gripped her soul, and she wondered if she would survive it.
Look at me. Give me just one sign.
His body stiff, Draco stared coldly back at her. Grief radiating from her in waves crushed his very soul.
Understanding wholly what his father was capable of, knowing exactly who had attacked Hermione twice now, there was only one choice he could make.
Protect the only witch he had ever loved.
“I never loved you,” he said without emotion.
“Draco-“
“He'll kill you,” Draco whispered.
Tears poured from her as he gave her the only thing she needed, a sign he still loved her.
It was enough.
8
Title: Two Truths and One Lie
Author : ravenswing34
Rating: PG13
Warnings: none
Word Count: 250
Draco had spent most of the previous turns thinking of the perfect trifecta of statements. “Alright… I’ve been seeing Hermione secretly for a few weeks, I am the father of her love child and she has agreed to be my wife.” The silence and dumbfounded looks were highly amusing as he sat smirking.
“Draco, you are aware we are playing TWO truths and ONE lie?” Ron asked, breaking the silence.
Hermione interrupted, “He knows the game, Ron.” Smiling, she leaned over to give Draco a soft kiss. But Draco was not satisfied with just a peck. He captured her head, deepening the kiss, finishing with a soft pull and nip on her bottom lip.
“I think they are all lies,” Ron stubbornly muttered.
Everyone else seemed too flabbergasted to speak.
“Maybe if I go next, it would help,” Hermione paused and took a deep breath. “I was a bit forgetful, I’m pregnant and I’m getting married in a year.”
The sound of Ron falling out of his chair in a dead faint didn’t even cause a stir as everyone continued to stare at the pair.
Finally Luna serenely spoke, “Hmm, Draco’s lie was a few weeks. You have been going out longer.”
Draco nodded, “Over a year, in fact."
Turning to Hermione, Luna continued, “So, Draco and you forgot the charm in a moment of passion, ergo pregnancy, therefore you must be getting married in a month or so?”
Hermione sheepishly grinned and said, “Surprise?”
The silence was deafening.
9
Title: I Still Hate You
Author : delayed_poet
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Word Count: 250 exactly!
Hermione could always count on Draco Malfoy to be completely honest with her. Granted, his version of the truth was always skewed in some way, but it was still the truth as he saw it.
When they were assigned to work together in the Ministry's Experimental Charms Department, she found him to be more intellectual than she'd thought he was. And yet, at the end of every day, he would tell her, “I still hate you,” and she believed him.
When her and Ron finally broke up, Malfoy had simply said, “You're better off without him.” And that night when it was time to return home, he told her he still hated her. Hermione believed him.
Hermione couldn't figure out when things had changed, but it was a rainy day in November when she realized that they had. After having a stimulating intellectual debate on a particular charm the Ministry had them working on, Hermione and Malfoy were ready to go home.
Malfoy looked Hermione in the eye and said, “I still hate you.”
Her heart seemed to stop, for his voice had sounded different than usual. She knew, almost immediately, what the change was and could hardly dare to believe it. For the first time since she'd known him, Draco Malfoy had told her a lie.
Hermione pulled her lower lip between her teeth, then asked, “Would you like to go out for drinks?”
Malfoy looked at her for a minute before nodding. “Yes.”
10
Title: drunk on alcohol & love
Author : dysenchanted2
Rating: PG
Warnings: none!
Word Count: 250
The day he first tells her he loves her, Hermione cannot help but notice how eerily blue the sky is. It is too unnatural, blue skies in October, and so she slips and say she loves him, too. He is too pleased to notice all the unhappy endings she begins planning in her mind. She breaks up with him the next week.
--
She gets drunk and complains to Malfoy about whats-his-face before throwing up on his new Italian shoes. It is sad and pathetic that Malfoy has become her go-to-guy. Hermione can think of one hundred reasons why she should hate him for all of eternity yet that one reason not to is enough.
--
They have a talk about love a week later. She thinks it is hilariously ironic that Malfoy believes in happy endings. He says things which burn ideas of hope in her mind that she should not have. She stumbles out of the pub drunk on alcohol and emotion and overwhelmed with loneliness.
--
They kiss one night after one drink too many and she points out their disagreements on love. Do you love me? He whispers back into the darkness. She feels the steady beat of her pulse as she whispers back. No. But her fingers are already entangled in his hair again and her heart beats hard against her ribcage-liar, liar, liar. Hermione feels strangely sober as he smiles at her and the unhappy endings dissolve away. I don’t love you, too.
11
Title: A Lesson for a Liar.
Author : emm718
Rating: PG
Warnings: None.
Word Count: 250 EXACTLY.
Although it wasn't High Tea, Hermione Granger had an intense craving for clotted cream, preferably on a raspberry almond scone. But when she waddled into the kitchen, she disappointedly found the container completely devoured. There wasn't a clot left for her eager palate.
Being infamous for her extensive knowledge, she was rarely wrong and ergo, seldom disputed. So when she made an inquiry, it was for two reasons. One, she genuinely didn't know the answer and was keen to learn it. Or two, she already knew the answer and was giving the interrogated individual a chance to be forthright. It was always smarter and easier for everyone involved if the answer was given immediately and honestly. After all, her temper was legendary also.
So when she toddled into the study, rubbing her swollen stomach and asked her adoring husband of two years if he ate her clotted cream, she expected nothing short of the truth.
Unfortunately Draco Malfoy still thought rather highly of his cunning and charms. He did eat the rest of her clotted cream. With raspberry almond scones. He was confident that she wouldn't notice and thus answered indignantly, "Of course not!"
Regrettably for Draco Malfoy, his pregnant wife didn't need any Veritaserum, for the droplet of clotted cream on his upper lip told her all she needed to know and her hex was precise and humiliating.
But he was an apt learner and with his magically elongated nose, he vowed never to touch clotted cream ever again.
12
Title: Reunion
Author : the_woods_
Rating: G
Warnings: x
Word Count: 250 (I hand counted, 'cos of the dashes P:)
It started with a conversation; forced pleasantries in an attempt to keep up appearances. And then-
Laughter. “You haven’t changed a bit.”
She shrugged.
“Bet the first place you wandered off to was the library.”
She giggled. “Now why would you think-”
“Come on, tell the truth.”
“Honestly, Ronald, this isn’t truth-”
Immediately she froze. He looked above her head at a spot nowhere in particular. Sniffed stiffly.
Her hand, reaching, always reaching, never close enough-
“Draco, I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”
“Of course you weren’t.”
It felt sharp even on his tongue.
She muttered an excuse to leave, awkwardly heading for the castle. He stepped up to her briskly, grabbing her arm and turning her towards him.
“Look at me.” A moment, and then desperation made him yell. “Hermione!”
Tears. How often had he been witness to her sorrow?
How often had she been witness to his?
“You lied to me.”
“I did.”
“I waited for you,” he pushed.
“You did.” She bit her lip. “It was a mistake.”
Silence. “A mistake, huh.”
“Yes,” she answered exuberantly. “We can’t-”
“No, you can’t,” he interrupted, restless. “Shut your eyes.”
She did without pause.
He leaned in, his forehead touching hers. “Hermione,” he whispered, grazing her lips softly, “with eyes shut, who do you see?”
He kissed her. She cried. And then-
A gasp all too soon. “But Ronald,” she murmured. Shook her head. “No, I can’t, Draco.”
Sighing, he backed away.
“Forget it, Granger.”
He left without a forced goodbye.
13
Title: Manufactured Truths
Author : ebilgatoloco/ formally dorito2000
Rating: G
Warnings: Angst
Word Count: 250
As he walked through the door to his flat, his resolution wavered slightly; however, he summoned his courage and began the trek to the kitchen that would change the course of his life. It was eating him up inside. He couldn’t bear it any more, and he refused to continue living with the carefully constructed lies he created had of his life. It tugged at his consciousness, knowing he had lied for so long, and worse, gotten away with it. It was time to face the truth, to tell her what she deserved to know; finally free her from the manufactured truths that bound them together for too long.
Pushing the door open to their kitchen knowing he’d find her there, he gasped softly as the intricate web of lies fell apart before his eyes. He had lied for the past three years without even flinching half the time. He claimed to love her cooking when his opinion couldn’t be further from the truth. He cringed when he’d kissed her goodbye every morning before setting off to work. Told her he loved her when he couldn’t stand to be touched by her anymore. He’d broken so many promises he’d lost track of them over time.
However, as he watched his childhood sweetheart in the arms of another, his heart shattered with disbelief and pain. He searched his mind for the hints or clues but couldn’t find one. And Ron knew in that moment she’d been lying all along as well.
14
Title: The truth revealed
Author : ginny_love1
Rating:Mature
Warnings: Bad Language from the outset.
Word Count: 250 excatly
“You lied to me, you complete wanker.” Hermione ranted in the general direction of Malfoy “You told me they were ‘shagging like rabbit's’, they are doing no such thing.”
“Just let me explain, please.” Draco pleaded “I honestly never thought you would believe me.”
“Believe you, why wouldn’t I believe you, you showed me what I thought were several photos of Harry shagging Ginny Fucking Weasley.” Hermione practically screamed “Why would you do that for a joke?”
“Because I always fancied you and I thought that if I could get you away from potter then who knows.”
“You really are a piece of work, un-fucking-believable why would I want you after everything that has happened between us?” Hermione retorted venomously, looking directly at Draco he looked sort of hurt. She turned and walked towards the window of his office.
Hermione felt him walk up behind her not touching her but just there; she had only married Harry because her first choice would never have wanted anything to do with her or so she thought.
“I would never, have been allowed to be with you while my parents were around but now things are different. You know that.” Draco answered plainly.
She shifted her position and turned to look him straight in the eyes, to see if this time she could see any trace of lies when she gazed into the grey depths while she searched he moved closer Hermione didn’t seem to notice as he moved in and kissed her.
15
Title: Not My Place
Author : inadaze22
Rating: R-ish, but mainly PG-13
Warnings: mentions of cutting
Word Count: 250
They say Draco’s been repaired, but I know the truth. And, no, I won’t tell.
It’s not my place - just like it’s not my place to fix him.
He refuses to be fixed.
After each breakdown, he calls and I come. Why? Because I’m all he has. Draco has no family, pride, wealth - nothing. I look into his eyes. Nothing. I touch him. Nothing. The war took everything from him.
Draco’s self-destructive behavior is a conscious revenge tactic; it’s his revenge against a world that used him as a scapegoat. He doesn’t listen when I tell him that he doesn’t have to destroy himself for vengeance purposes. So, I listen to his confessions. Draco’s horribly honest. Filthy words and truths spill from a filthy mouth.
My fingers run over his wrists, over clotting blood and fading scars. I press my lips against his skin. His face contorts in pain. I can’t differentiate whether it’s from the burn of my saliva on his butchered flesh or the tenderness of my touch.
I should walk away….
“I hate you.” Draco hisses after I heal his cuts.
“It’s mutual.” I lie, flatly.
“You’re lying, Granger.”
“…”
“You can’t fix me.”
But, I want to, because I love him, dead eyes, scarred skin, brokenness, and all.
And I hate myself.
“Sleep, Draco.”
He listens, but the nightmares begin quickly. And I calm him by breathing a kiss against his lips.
Draco sighs, “Go.”
I listen because it’s not my place to do anything else.
16
Title: True Lies
Author : telperaca
Rating: None
Warnings: None
Word Count: 250
Draco saw the bulky dark figure huddled in the corner of the room. Her face seemed to be buried between her chest and her knees. He heard the irregular breathing sounds coming from the outlined figure which caused his own breathing to stop.
She had been crying.
He had never considered his own lies would ever hurt him as much as it did right now. Constantly convincing himself that he was not in love with this intelligent woman, nor mesmerised by her subtle beauty but seeing her at her most vulnerable moment caused his walls to crumble.
He found himself at an impasse, unable to walk away, and yet unable to say the right words to comfort her without frightening her away. There was only one thing to do.
He took the seven strides to reach her, removed his heavy cloak and draped it around her. He placed a hand on her knee as he sat opposite her. She only cried harder.
“He’s looking for you, you know?” A gentle squeeze of her hand on his. This small gesture from her would have been enough to set his heart on fire if only circumstances were different. If only she did not belong to another.
Unable to think further, he continued and said the first thing that came to his head. “He says he’s sorry, and he… loves you.” This was simple truth of his life but a lie for another man.
“It’s over.” And she looked straighter into his eyes.
ooo
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