The sound greatly surprised Draco.
He immediately released her collar, took a step back, and his cold indifference instantly turned into panic.
Look at him now, he is completely different from before! Hermione thought to herself as she loosened her collar and gasped for breath.
"Hermione? What are you doing?" He scratched his platinum blonde hair in surprise, his face quickly relaxing as if he had seen a ghost. "Why are you wearing Pansy's face? Did you drink Polyjuice Potion?"
"Of course! What else did you think?" she said angrily, feeling embarrassed that he had so incisively exposed her method. "Draco, I did not know you could be so rude to people!"
"I did not know that some well-behaved student was so bold as to trespass into another house's common room." Draco's temples throbbed, but he tried to calm himself down.
Merlin, what did I just do to her? I pinned her against the door! I even grabbed her collar, trying to choke her!
He wondered if he had hurt her. His mind was in turmoil, but he tried to remain calm on the surface.
"You overconfident girl, are you afraid that Gryffindor will lose this year's House Cup?" He tilted his head, looked at her neck, crossed his arms, whistled, and pretended that he was not embarrassed or worried about whether she had been choked by him.
Hermione was clearly fooled by his nonchalant attitude.
She retorted defiantly, "I had everything planned out! If you had not suddenly come back—"
"You have got your plans? Do you know Pansy will be back soon? She will be accompanied by at least three other Slytherin students," he said lazily.
"Do not try to scare me..." Hermione stared at him suspiciously, her tone losing its momentum.
He stopped talking and just stared intently at her neck. Seeing her face quickly flush, he felt much better and mischievously dragged out his words, "If you do not believe me, go outside now and see if they will drag you to the Head of House and have him deduct fifty points from your marks."
"Even if you are right," Hermione said stiffly, "I…I will not thank you!"
"You are welcome." Draco automatically silenced any words she said other than "thank you," which almost made the girl faint with anger.
"Do not be angry." He suppressed a smile and asked her gently, "How did you end up impersonating Pansy? Where did you get her things?"
"During the Quidditch match, whilst she was checking on your injury, I secretly pulled out a strand of her hair…" Hermione frowned, straightening her dishevelled collar.
Draco stared blankly at the ceiling.
Merlin! I was seriously injured back then! And I thought she was worried about me!
Unexpectedly, instead of caring about me, she was preoccupied with pulling other girls' hair!
"Very well!" Draco sneered, suddenly feeling a surge of annoyance. "May I ask what exactly you are planning to do in the Slytherin common room? Trying to steal some souvenirs?"
Hermione Granger, she is hopeless! How come she is just like me when I was a child?
"Oh, actually, I was looking for your Herpo notebook. I remember it mentioning Basilisks or something." Hermione, having nothing to lose, stubbornly admitted it.
"Do you think I would just leave such important books lying around carelessly?" Draco laughed angrily.
The book was lying in his emerald green miniature dragonhide storage bag that he always carried with him.
His piercing smile left her speechless; she could only haughtily snort and glare at him angrily.
"So, since you are so curious, so curious that you are willing to go to such lengths as using a high-grade potion like Polyjuice Potion, why did you not just come and ask me?" he asked regretfully, feeling that she was simply wasting a precious resource—it was Polyjuice Potion!
The next second, he suddenly realised that she did not trust him.
She preferred to use a roundabout method like Polyjuice Potion rather than simply walk up to him and ask him a question.
Merlin simply cannot understand this girl's thought process! Draco's expression gradually turned cold.
"How am I supposed to ask? You are so tight-lipped, always acting all mysterious, and you know so many things nobody else does!" Seeing his stern face, no longer as amiable as before, Hermione's emotions rose as well, her tone becoming sharp. "The most suspicious thing is that Ancient Greek parchment you had covered in Dark magic terms! I really regret translating it for you! Not long after, the Chamber of Secrets opened!"
"So, that is how you define me? A scheming Dark wizard?" Draco forced a smile that looked more like a grimace.
She was not wrong. In his past life, he had indeed been a Death Eater who "committed all sorts of evil," Draco thought despondently.
"I did not say that." Hermione was somewhat uneasy about his extreme conclusion.
A hint of hurt seemed to emanate from his face, instantly cooling her fiery and intense emotions.
"But, based on your wildly imaginative thinking, you were practically accusing me of opening the Chamber of Secrets?" Draco narrowed his eyes, scrutinising her. Pansy's face was gradually reverting to Hermione's.
"Do not misinterpret me. What I mean is, you are indeed very suspicious. You implied that the cat was just the beginning, and then Colin Creevey, Justin Finch-Fletchley, and Nick were all Petrified. Is that just a coincidence?" Hermione raised her chin and said haughtily.
"I was just trying to remind you to be careful! How could you think of me like that?" Draco's tone was tinged with disbelief.
Hermione's eyes flickered, but she remained defiant, "And what about that rogue Bludger? You dare say it was not your house-elf's doing? I have been keeping your secret all this time..."
"Let me remind you, that was entirely Dobby's doing. I did not ask him to do anything! I was completely unaware of it beforehand! Besides, I am the one who is injured, I am the one with thirty-four broken bones, whilst Harry is still perfectly fine." Draco snorted, feeling a dull ache in his bones, heart, and brain.
Hermione's expression suddenly turned a little strange.
There seemed to be a hint of heartache in her eyes. But due to the backlighting and shadows, Draco could not see it clearly.
"Since you doubt my intentions, why do you not tell Harry what you heard? Why keep my secret?" He braced one hand on the door, moved closer to Hermione, and tried to see her eyes clearly.
"I do not want you to be misunderstood by him! Of course I know you have no idea…" Hermione felt a little uncomfortable at his closeness.
His light grey eyes were bright, and his nose was almost touching hers. His warm breath gently brushed against her face.
She suddenly realised that her heart was beating abnormally fast. She pursed her lips and pressed her back tightly against the door, trying to alleviate the symptom.
Draco continued to scrutinise her eyes without any restraint, his gaze filling her with dread. She cowered, gripping the door panel tightly. With his approach, her heart felt like it was about to burst or slide off.
Her arrogance subsided a little, but she did not give up the struggle.
Hermione recalled some evidence to refute him. Forcing herself to remain calm, she asked, "You know the secrets of the Chamber of Secrets, yet you will not tell me. What about that?"
"You did not tell me Harry was a Parselmouth, did you? Do not tell me you did not guess, you are the smartest girl in the whole year!" Draco retorted.
He was clearly arguing with her out of spite, yet he could not ignore her gradually brightening brown eyes. Moreover, a faint scent of green apples was slowly emanating from her hair.
She smells wonderful.
Damn it, why do I always pay attention to these trivial things? How can I concentrate on arguing like this?
"I was just guessing! After you told him, he… worried every day… fearing that he was the heir of Slytherin." Hermione's petal-like lips trembled as she spoke with some difficulty, and it was clear that her thoughts were somewhat confused.
"I think… he has the right to know everything about himself." Draco pursed his lips, staring at her, his tone involuntarily softening.
"But—" Hermione hesitated.
"A fact is a fact, and it cannot disappear just because you run away from it. He will find out he is a Parselmouth sooner or later. I told him so he could protect himself, or at least hide himself and not talk to snakes in public, lest the gossipy Hufflepuff students start talking about him!" A hint of anger flashed in Draco's grey eyes.
"Why… do you think the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a Basilisk? No one else says that… not even Professor Binns… could say for sure what kind of monster it was!" Hermione tried to analyse his words with her confused mind and grasped the key points.
Draco choked up.
He could not explain it.
Was he going to say that he tricked the Grey Lady into revealing information because he wanted to destroy the Horcruxes?
Or perhaps he was reborn and had already experienced all of these things before?
"This is just my reasonable speculation." He could not maintain his tough stance at all. Feeling guilty, he released his hand from the door, turned around, took a few steps, and began to study a Grindylow that was slowly swimming past the dormitory window.
"When did knowledge become a sin? Would you not be even more suspicious then, since you love academia so much?" Draco asked, facing the Black Lake with his back to her.
Hermione remained silent.
She was finally freed from the door, but she had lost most of her fighting ability.
"Do you realise that by not letting Harry follow that voice, you make yourself seem suspicious, like a 'mastermind who does not want others to get involved'?" she asked hesitantly.
"Am I supposed to advise him to recklessly follow something so dangerous, only to be Petrified or even killed?" Draco turned around and said impatiently. "Speaking of which, you are the one who should be most careful! Do not act rashly on your own again, or go exploring other houses! Are you not afraid of running into it and being Petrified by that monstrous thing?"
"What do you mean I should be the most careful? Just because I am a Muggle-born student, does that mean I should be more careful than others? Because the Basilisk only targets filthy Muggle-borns, not noble pure-blood wizards like you, right?" Hermione asked with a cold arrogance and bitterness.
Hermione Granger, you know nothing! Draco glared at her, practically bursting with rage.
What you should be most careful about is not because you were born a Muggle, but because you were Petrified once in your past life!
Now that Justin Finch-Fletchley has fallen, you are the next student to be Petrified!
You are definitely at the greatest risk! You should be the most careful!
But how do you explain this as Draco?