Chasing an Illusion

Prologue

'Tis a sick love that was borne between them

A love borne of hate,

Strewn with anger, lust and greed.

For this kind of love,

There can be no happiness.

Only pain.

And pain shall follow them,

The way death follows the devil.

---

Chapter 1 : A Chance Meeting

Draco was attempting to study for his History of Magic test for the next day, twirling the quill between his fingers absently. Bloody hell, this just wasn't going to work, he'd been staring at the same page for the past one hour, but so far just about the only thing he had absorbed was the introduction to the chapter. The truth was, he had other, more important things to think about rather what some dusty old wizard did two hundred years ago. Maybe if he took a short nap he would be able to think more clearly. Yes, that would help clear his mind. Just five minutes ...more than...More than enough...time....

***

Hermione slipped into the room and quietly took off the invisibility cloak she had borrowed from Harry. "Lumos," she whispered.

It was late at night, way past curfew; she should have been back in bed sleeping by now, but she just had to catch up a little on her Arithmancy assignment. It wasn't due till next week, but still, she felt it was better to get it done first. The sooner the better (before Snape decided to pile on another chunk of homework).

She could have studied just as well back in the Gryffindor common room, but somehow, she preferred to study in this musty room hidden near the back of the library. It was restricted, but nobody would know. No one else knew this room existed anyway.

Hermione put her books down on the table, and was about to light a candle when she spied the shimmer of silver in the dark. Curious...What was that? She moved closer to the sofa beside the desk, closer to the silver object and found that it was...Malfoy? The light from her wand reflected from his pale blonde hair. Curious. What was Malfoy doing in this room? And what was that in his hands? She moved the wand closer to the book in his arms and read the title: History of Magic.

He was studying for the next day's test? Interesting. His grades in class were fairly decent (only slightly less than hers, actually) but she'd never caught him studying. Very interesting.

She picked up her books moved towards the door. Well, it appeared that she would be studying in the Gryffindor common room after all. She smirked. Never mind, at least she did learn something amusing tonight. Malfoys do study after all. Even though she could almost hear him denying it. "A Malfoy, study? Never. Granger, all that dust from those musty books you lug around must be getting to your head. Keep studying, and you might even get dumber."

Hermione opened the door and stepped into the doorway, but as an afterthought she turned around and whispered a simple charm to remove the giant inkblot that had formed on Draco's left cheek from sleeping on his quill. If studying didn't ruin his reputation, a giant ink on his face would surely give it away. A most inappropriate way to ruin one's reputation; it would be...too easy. With that thought, Hermione left the room, leaving Draco sprawled on the sofa, hugging his History book.