Damaged (DRAMIONE)

Mission:Survival

Some time passed in silence. Delaney sat inbetween them squeezed like a sandwich. Draco and Hermione took turns in comforting her. 

"Seriously, guys, you're actually acting like my parents! I'm fine, perfectly fine!" exclaimed Delaney. 

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." said Draco, standing up.
"Where do you think you're going?" asked Hermione.
"To wherever I please." said Draco, questioning each of his choices he made after he came here.
"Fine, go and die." Hermione also stood up, trying to remember why she even forgave him. 

"Uh guys, what's up? Wait, you just agreed to work together to find a way to get out of here. What's wrong, now?" asked Delaney. "Uh never mind, it would be better if I don't interfere." she added and made her exit.

Why did I plan to work with her? She's a mudblood, Gryffindor and friends with Potter after all.....And if I remember, she's exactly why I was second in classes when I should have been first. Second to a mudblood. Even though I might be wanting to fit in, that doesn't mean I have to mingle with cheap brats like her.  And, after all, purebloods are superior to others, no matter what. Doubted Draco, once he was alone.

Why did I forgive him? He's a criminal death-eater despite all his excuses and he was the one who murdered Dumbledore, whose death is still afresh. He called me mudblood, it might not be affecting me now, but still it is as bad as a word as ever. He bullied people, tortured innocent lives. He doesn't deserve redemption. Doubted Hermione, once she was alone.

Survival. Both of them had their answers right in front of them once they thought through the things. 

Draco's cunning mind was already forming a plan. Be nice to her. Use her for your own needs then dump her. After all, it would be worth it, as much as I hate to admit it, she is the brightest witch of her age, after all. It would be tough. But I would keep it up like this so, if she ever finds something useful she would share it with me. 

But Hermione being much more brilliant had much more smarter ideas. For revenge. I would be nice to him. I would be nice to him to the point he will start liking me. To the point, he won't be able to live without me. I will let his hopes get high to the sky, then crush them. I will plot and plan for returning using him as my assistant, behind his back but show him only parts of my plan, so that he wouldn't be able to figure it out on his own.

Still, Hermione had to re-assure herself that what she doing was not wrong, it was for the best. I am doing nothing wrong. It's taking vengeance for killing Dumbledore. He was the one who started this, let him pay for his actions. Let him regret what he did. Let him be human and let him understand guilt.  

Draco walked into the room where Hermione was. 
Both of them thought the same thing, without knowing. Draco and Hermione, both were aiming for the same goal.

Let's take Mission: Survival into action.

"Hermione, are you alright? I-I'm sorry for behaving like that earlier, I was just frustrated on how we were going find a way out of here." Draco said, to Hermione who was sitting on a bed with her neck down and hair hiding her face. "Look, I get that my sudden behavior might be suspicious but I mean it. I want to get out of here, and I want to belong with others, genuinely make friends and I guess, till we are stuck here, you could teach on 'how to behave properly'. I am so done with everyone framing as a criminal. I truly want to be better and I need your help for that. I just thought through everything and that's when I realized that my current behavior wasn't helping." Finished Draco. It was much harder than he though it would be. Ridiculously hard. He just wanted to yell at her and spat out that, 'Your getting hard to catch drama is useless. Mudblood, you are absolutely naive.'

Truth? 0%. Lie? 100%. Hermione was not a fool to believe this. She had to be better than that, Draco should not question her motives like she was doing right now. She must be believable, her act must look real.

New idea unlocked: Act as dumb as Draco Malfoy expects you to be.

"I guess you're right. Although, we might not be that great of friends till we entered here, but we should be at least nice to each other if we have to work together. So, I would be glad to help to make you friends, if you are understanding what you did was wrong." Answered Hermione with a small smile.

'Dumb. She believed it because of her all gold heart. Huh! Good for me. This is going to get fun.'

'Idiot. He bought it and thought that I bought his act. Well, this is fun.'

HERMIONE GRANGER/BEAVER: 01 ----- DRACO MALFOY/FERRET: 00